LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



Coming Religion. 



BY 



THOMAS VAN NESS. 




BOST 
ROBERTS BROTHERS 



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Copyright, 1892, 
By Roberts Brothers. 



©mbergitg i9«ss : 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A. 



TO THE CONGREGATIONS OF 

Knits dfjurrfj, IBntber, 

AND 

Wqz £>ecort& Unitarian Cfyttrri), &an JFrancisco, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THEIR 
FRIEND AND FORMER PASTOR. 



PREFACE. 



AS this little book is intended primarily 
^ -*■ for the many busy yet thoughtful 
persons who, though thoroughly alive to the 
present religious problems, have scarcely 
time to study them properly, the Author has 
attempted to give the results of his thought 
in the simplest and most concise way. Tech- 
nical terms are omitted, as also phrases which 
by use have acquired conventional mean- 
ings. Footnotes, as well as authorities, are 
given only when absolutely required by the 
context. 

While this simplicity may lessen the value 
of the book for scholars, it will, it is hoped, 
make it more attractive for popular perusal. 



PREFACE. 



If but to one soul new hope and trust in 
the trend of things may come through the 
reading of these Essays, the Author will feel 
himself amply repaid. 

Tho~ Van Ness. 



San Francisco, 

Dec. i, 1892. 



CONTENTS. 

» 

Page 

INTRODUCTORY 7 

PART I. — The Religion of Jesus; or, 

the Gospel of Love 15 

PART II. — The Religion of Science; or, 

the Gospel of Evolution 65 

PART III. — The Religion of Humanity; 

or, the Gospel of Socialism . . . 121 

PART IV. — Reconciliation, and Conclu- 
sion 169 



INTRODUCTORY. 



" "V\ 7E have not so much as heard whether 
there be any Holy Ghost," say the 
bewildered Ephesians, ancient and modern; 
and it is a fact that many intelligent minds 
of to-day are in sad sincerity asking the 
question, " Does any basis for a universal 
religion really exist outside of the pale of 
a supernatural revelation?" These Essays 
are a contribution towards a solution of 
that problem. 

To present the writer's position clearly, it 
seems necessary, as introductory, to define 
what is meant by the term " a religion," so 
that a proper estimate can be arrived at as 
to the justice of calling by that name certain 
systems which up to this time have not been 
so classified. Passing by altogether the 



S INTRODUCTORY. 

much-mooted question of what constitutes 
religion, whether it resides in feeling, or in 
thought, or in a complex combination of the 
two, we say at once that, broadly defined, we 
call that a religion which gives — 

(i) Something to worship (that is, leads 
men's thoughts from self to something 
higher), 

(2) Excites passionate devotion, leading 
even to self-sacrifice. 

(3) Has something to say of conduct (that 
is, what ought to be done, and what left 
undone). 

(4) Inspires a hope and fosters a fear. 

Its gospel is the proclamation of these 
things. 

If a writer suggests a change of direction 
in so important a matter as the trend of 
religious thought, he so far impugns the sys- 
tem generally held. It therefore behooves 
him to show wherein such system errs or 
fails of complete effectiveness in engaging 
mind and heart. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



A devotee of the current Christian belief 
might reasonably ask, " What change of base 
is needed? Is not our religion perfect as it 
is, if measured by the standard of its sincere 
believers? " The following pages must needs 
answer this question in the negative. They 
will attempt to show how two other religions, 
slowly organizing in the civilized world, are 
in many respects opposed and inimical to 
the orthodox Christian faith, and that among 
those giving allegiance to their precepts are 
many actuated with as great honesty, as 
noble a purpose, and as sincere an enthu- 
siasm as can be found in the records of the 
early Christian Church. Is it not a fact, say 
they, that Protestant and Catholic alike habit- 
ually rejoice in any improvement in the art 
of war which promises to make the nation to 
which they belong more successful (that is, 
more destructive) in its contests with other 
nations, and this too in spite of the fact that 
they proclaim their religious leader to be the 
Prince of Peace? Is it not also true that in 



IO INTRODUCTORY. 

those countries where law, aggressive and 
punitive, has been brought to the greatest 
degree of intricacy and comprehensiveness, 
church walls most reverberate to the injunc- 
tion, " If any man sue thee at the law and 
take away thy coat, let him take thy cloak 
also"? Must it not finally be confessed, 
argue these objectors to the prevailing faith, 
that while cruelty to animals, slavery, and 
other sins not inveighed against in the Chris- 
tian gospel are more and more awakening 
the horror and engaging the reformatory 
efforts of the civilized world, divers doctrines 
that are to be found in the New Testament, 
those tending towards asceticism, communism, 
and incivism, are falling rapidly into abeyance 
with the thoughtful and truly religious? 

Such criticism, w r hether fully justified or 
not, points to the conclusion that the Christian 
system, as heretofore understood, is coming 
to be perceived not to be, in its entirety, 
a practical working system for the modern 
world. Certain scientific students, who are 



INTRO D UCTOR V. 1 1 

found altogether outside the churches, declare 
that every educated man of to-day, however 
sincerely he may think he holds to the Chris- 
tian religion, is really more or less a convert 
to the religion of Science, and that thereby 
his conduct, if not his dogmas, have been 
modified for the better. 

In even flow with these two systems, Chris- 
tian and Scientific, comes the great stream 
of brotherhood enthusiasm which we are 
fain to call the Religion of Humanity, and 
which, if it can but be freighted with the 
best of former beliefs and carry with it the 
hearts of brave and unselfish men and women, 
will without doubt help bring mankind to 
the longed-for promised land, — to the very 
portals of the kingdom of Heaven. 

It is a comparison of these three systems, 
Christian, Scientific, and Humanitarian, with 
their gospels of love, evolution, and socialism, 
which must now be undertaken. 

In order that full justice may be done 
them, they must be approached from the 



1 2 INTRODUCTORY. 

point of view of the sympathetic adherent, 
the best, not the worst, interpretations being 
given to each. This done, even though 
imperfectly, we may proceed with greater 
confidence to suggest that reconciliation 
which seems to be coming in the beautiful 
and pregnant future. 



PART I. 

# 

THE RELIGION OF JESUS; 

OR, 

THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 



PART I. 



CHAPTER I. 

A SERIOUS difficulty is experienced by 
an unprepared mind in examining any 
ancient or foreign doctrine, from the fact that 
though it is apparently translated into the 
language of the observer's land and day, 
originally it may have been freighted with 
associations fundamentally different from 
those with which it is now approached. 

"The kingdom of God is at hand." What 
did this mean to those privileged to listen 
with their own ears to the Baptist's clarion cry? 
Suppose a Buddhist missionary should go 
through the United States preaching " Pre- 
pare, walk ye in the eightfold path. I come 
as the foreteller of Nirvana." What does it 
mean ? Nothing to us. The words are empty, 



1 6 THE COMING RELIGION. 

the thought underneath them being too for- 
eign to American religious ideas to present 
a realizable picture to our minds. So with 
the announcement of John the Baptist. One 
must be mentally a Jew of his time in order 
to catch the full purport of the words. 

The modern world has been taught to think 
of the call of Jesus taken up from the lips of 
John as a new call, unique in every respect, 
and entirely cut off from a past state of af- 
fairs. If such were the case, it would have 
had little meaning to those addressed, and 
consequently made no impression. Standing 
among the crowd of hearers nineteen hundred 
years ago, and hearing the words, " Repent, 
for the kingdom of God is at hand/' what 
thought would they have conveyed to us? 
Before an answer can be given, something 
must be known of the history of the Jews. A 
few words, then, as to that history. 

In the earliest times the Israelitish nation 
was a theocracy. To primitive Jewish thought 
Jehovah was an invisible king. His residence 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. \J 

was on Mount Zion. . In the old days he had 
stood as a flaming presence in the bush, and 
called a prophet to the work of liberation. 
Afterwards, when his chosen people had been 
led forth from bondage, he went before them 
as a cloud of darkness by day, a pillar of fire 
by night. Once, — a never-to-be-forgotten 
time, — amid the awful terrors of cloud and 
storm, he appeared on the top of Mount 
Sinai, and there delivered to his appointed 
and well-beloved spokesman, Moses, com- 
mands which should for all time be the basis 
of government. " I will never leave thee or 
forsake thee " came the promise ; and so the 
Divine Presence was supposed ever to hover 
around the Ark, to come in the lightning- 
flash, to speak in the thunder-storm, to fight 
at the head of armies, to punish the bad by 
the destruction of their children, or through 
the whirlwind which took away their flocks 
and crops. 

The idea, then, of Jehovah was that of a 
very near yet invisible king who rewarded 



1 8 THE COMING RELIGION. 

the righteous and punished the disobedient 
even unto the third and fourth generation. 
How was this king's will to be known? Who 
was to interpret it on earth? In other words, 
after the death of Moses and his brother 
Aaron, who were to be the ministers of state? 
Those whom Jehovah especially signalled 
out. The man of prominence, therefore, in 
the Jewish commonwealth, the man of au- 
thority, was, as has been correctly said, " he 
who had a deeper insight and held a stronger 
sense than others of the presence and power 
of the invisible King, and the function of 
such a man was to awaken the same sense in 
others by eloquent words and decided acts." 
This statesman, as we should term him, was 
then called a prophet. A prophet's work 
was just what a true statesman's work is to- 
day, — to make every one loyal to the particu- 
lar form of government here presented ; hence 
the prophet's cry was, " Renounce false gods, 
repent of your disloyalty, give allegiance only 
to Jehovah your king, and he will cease to 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 1 9 

punish. Yea, he will reign over you from 
Mount Zion, and the land shall flow with 
milk and honey, and every man shall be safe 
under his own vine and fig-tree. " Suppose a 
great plague came, or an Assyrian invasion, 
"Why should these things be?" was asked. 
Because, said the Jewish statesman, you have 
turned away from Jehovah your God. " Turn 
again unto me, and I will turn unto you," saith 
the Lord. "Thou shalt be my people, and I 
will be your God and king." 

As years pass, Israel has many trials, much 
suffering. The Babylonian conquest came, 
then the exile ; by and by the return under 
Persian rule, disorder, invasion, Greek rule; 
then a few brief days of liberty and the estab- 
lishment of the old theocracy ; and in the 
end the iron heel of the Roman master. 
Bitterly did the Jewish people resist the erec- 
tion of images to Caesar. " We have but one 
God and king, — Jehovah." Such was the 
cry of the nationalists, the pharisaical party. 
In their hearts Caesar was never acknowledged 



20 THE COMING RELIGION. 

ruler. Impatiently they waited for a libera- 
tor, for a son of Jehovah, an earthly vicege- 
rent who should hurl from power the hated 
Roman, and re-establish the ancient theoc- 
racy, — the kingdom of God. The phrase, 
" kingdom of God, " meant to them, therefore, 
a political condition such as had existed be- 
fore in the days of the judges and prophets. 
No wonder, then, that when John, and after- 
wards Jesus, came with the cry, " Repent, for 
the kingdom of God is at hand, " it was taken 
as a political cry ; no wonder either that when 
Jesus called himself son of Jehovah, the old 
meaning was attached to the words, namely, 
Jehovah, vicegerent on earth, and that the 
people looked to him to establish his throne 
in Jerusalem and to drive out the foreigner 
from the land. The meaning of John's warn- 
ing is now clear. Had we been members of 
that crowd which early flocked about the 
earnest Galilean whom the Baptist foretold, 
we too, hearing his words, should have sup- 
posed that the old theocracy was to be re- 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 21 

stored, that a reactionary era was about to 
begin, and men's thoughts directed back to 
the principles of Isaiah, Moses, Abraham. 
A man can always get a hearing by going 
back in a time of dissatisfaction, and calling 
men's attention to former days and the good 
times then enjoyed, The past seems ever 
more pleasant than the present, because 
memory takes away the bitter and leaves 
the sweet. 

" The kingdom of God is at hand " : what 
a magical call ! It brought up all the old, 
pleasant recollections, all the old visions of 
glory, all the old tales of heroism. No won- 
der that a reformer who used such a national 
cry should stir men's hearts and fix their at- 
tention. It was as if a man to-day should go 
through the streets of Strasburg and Metz 
shouting " Vive la Republique ; liberte, egalite, 
et fraternite," the old watchwords of 1793. It 
would rouse all the latent French enthusiasm, 
and make it dangerous for German sover- 
eignty in Alsace-Lorraine. 



22 THE COMING RELIGION. 

Now, then, as we understand how the peo- 
ple — the crowd — took the call of Jesus, it 
is well to ask, " What did Jesus himself mean 
by using this old national call? " That brings 
us to the temptation in the wilderness, the 
turning-point in the Galilean's life. There in 
lonely solitude Jesus fought out the battle of 
life. What that struggle was can be imagined 
as one by one great questions rose before him 
demanding solution. What was his duty in 
regard to the Law and the Temple? How 
should he use this new power which he began 
to feel thrilling his every nerve? How far 
yield to the people's desire for a leader and 
king? The result of that moral conflict we 
know. Jesus came forth from the desert with 
the idea of personal sovereignty put aside, 
earthly ambition crushed out. The theocracy 
shall be re-established, but instead of making 
the kingdom of God coextensive with Pales- 
tine, he will have it universal. The kingdom 
of God shall be set up in men's hearts: it 
will then abide forever. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 23 

This one thing, then, distinguishes Jesus 
from all the other Jewish prophets, that he 
conceives of Jehovah's kingdom not simply 
as an outward manifestation, but as an inward 
experience. Jesus turns from the objective 
to the subjective. His words may be the 
same, his tones, his manners, as those of 
others; but this difference makes him unique 
among Jewish reformers. The change of con- 
ception from a national to a universal religion 
which is noticeable in the teachings of Jesus, 
comes from his deeper, more tender, thought 
of God. To him Jehovah is not only a Judge 
and King, but also a Father, — the Heavenly 
Father, — and every man stands before him 
as beloved son. If one wanders from the 
Father, the Father would seek him as a shep- 
herd would the lost sheep, even as the prodi- 
gal's father. He will fall upon his neck and 
kiss him if he will but return. This Heav- 
enly Father, said Jesus, sends the rain and 
the sunshine on the just and the unjust. He 
it is who watches over the sparrow, and num- 



24 THE COMING RELIGION. 

bers even the hairs of our heads. He it is 
who colors so beautifully the lily, and clothes 
the grass which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast 
into the oven, therefore he will much more 
take care of us, if only we have faith and 
trust in him. " Love, then, the Lord [Je- 
hovah] thy God [that is, the Heavenly 
Father] with all thy heart and with all thy 
mind and with all thy soul, for this is the 
first duty." 

If every man stands as son to this Heavenly 
Father, then it must follow that each man 
stands as brother to his neighbor man ; con- 
sequently each should love his brother as 
himself, — not, mark you, primarily because 
he is his brother, but because he too is a son 
of God. In the thought of Jesus, each man 
owes an infinite debt of love to God for his 
goodness. It cannot be directly repaid, but 
indirectly, by showing love and kindness to 
others of his sons. In this world-family there 
must be no debtor and creditor, no master 
and slave, for all are dependent upon and en- 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 25 

joy the same bounty. One's neighbor being 
a child of God, every other feature of his life 
must be lost in that supreme idea. As child, 
then, he represents the Father, and when he 
comes in God's name he must not be refused. 
" Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these 
my brethren, ye did it unto me." One who 
does thus try to love God through his earthly 
children shall have in the end a rest in 
heaven. " In my Father's house are many 
mansions prepared for them that love him." 
What of that ungrateful wretch who receives 
these kindnesses from day to day from the 
Heavenly Father, yet never seeks to repay, 
who will not forgive his own debtors? At 
the last he shall be unforgiven, and be cast out 
into utter darkness, where there shall be weep- 
ing and gnashing of teeth. 

In the old kingdom of Jehovah men were 
bound together because of their descent from 
Father Abraham. In this new kingdom they 
must trace their descent from the Father in 
heaven. By substituting Jehovah for Abra- 



26 THE COMING RELIGION. 

ham, Jesus announced in place of the national 
the universal brotherhood. Those desiring 
to join the new theocracy, the universal king- 
dom of Jehovah, must have certain new rules 
of life. Their outlook being larger, their 
duties must be larger also. What, then, shall 
these rules be? 

Jesus sums them up in great measure in 
his Sermon on the Mount. In that wonder- 
ful discourse he starts out by describing those 
who will be considered worthy of the title 
u Blessed" in the new commonwealth. After 
enumerating one or two beatitudes even at 
that time well known, such as " Blessed are 
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth " 
(Psalm xxxvii. 1 1), he says, " Blessed are they 
that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
for they shall be filled." Character, then, is 
the bed-rock upon which Jesus builds. " Let 
your light so shine that men may see your 
good works." Let your character be above 
that of the scribes and Pharisees. They may 
believe correctly (so, too, may devils, and 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 2J 

tremble), they may attend the Temple wor- 
ship, and, as far as outward conduct is con- 
cerned, may do right; but inwardly they have 
not righteousness. Again, there are those who 
may recognize me as Master and teach in 
my name, yet even though their belief is 
right, they shall not be saved, unless they do 
the will of my Heavenly Father. 

Five commandments Jesus gave to those 
who desired to join the universal theocracy. 
Naturally, as this world-wide kingdom must 
first begin in men's hearts, in their disposi- 
tions, the commands of Jesus apply to the 
inner life or intentions rather than to the 
outward life or acts done. Consequently, so 
that no mistake can be made, Jesus takes 
five commands that were applicable to the 
outward life in the Jewish theocracy, and 
contrasts them with five which must be 
observed in the universal theocracy. Of 
old it was told you, " Thou shalt not kill, and 
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the 
judgment. But I say unto you that who- 



28 THE COMING RELIGION. 

soever is angry with his brother without a 
cause shall be in clanger of the judgment, 
and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall 
be in danger of the Gehenna of fire: there- 
fore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar and 
there rememberest that thy brother hath 
aught against thee, leave there thy gift and 
go thy way. First be reconciled to thy 
brother, and then come and offer thy gifts." 
This command summed up is, " Be not angry, 
live in peace with all men." It naturally 
follows from the conception which Jesus has 
of men. If they are all God's sons, having 
the same Father in heaven, then not one 
must be considered worthless or a fool. The 
barrier which separates man from man is 
hostile feeling. Avoid this; avoid anger, 
which leads to such enmity. 

The second command is as wide and as 
searching. It goes at once to the root of 
things. " Of old ye were taught, Thou shalt 
not commit adultery: but I say unto you 
that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 29 

after her hath committed adultery already 
in his heart." 

The third command is in regard to oaths. 
It is put in contrast with the old law as ex- 
pressed in Deuteronomy, which says, " When 
thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy 
God, thou shalt not slack to pay it : for the 
Lord thy God will surely require it of thee ; 
and it would be sin in thee. That which is 
gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and 
perform ; even a freewill offering, according as 
thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God, which 
thou hast promised with thy mouth." This 
old law in regard to oaths had been greatly 
amplified, and many fine distinctions had 
been drawn, such as, " Whosoever shall swear 
by the Temple, it is nothing; but whosoever 
shall swear by the gold of the Temple, he is a 
debtor. 1 ' Against all such absurd distinctions 
Jesus sets the complete prohibition of oaths, 
sayingin emphatic language, "Swear not at all. 
Let your communications one to another be 
simple, honest, and direct, Yea, yea; Nay, nay." 



30 THE COMING RELIGION. 

The fourth commandment naturally follows 
in view of the second. " Ye have heard that 
it hath been said, An eye for an eye, a tooth 
for a tooth ; but I say unto you, That ye resist 
not evil : but whosoever shall smite thee on 
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 
If any man will sue thee at the law, and take 
away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 
Whosoever shall force thee to go a mile with 
him, go two. Give to him that asketh thee, 
and from him that would borrow turn thou 
not away." This injunction, " Resist not 
force with force," Jesus evidently intended 
to be taken as he said it. His actions during 
the time of the betrayal, the trial, and the 
scourging show that he literally followed 
out his own precept to resist not evil. Force 
must be conquered by love. For a time 
evil may conquer love, but eventually love 
triumphs. Love, then, must be our only 
weapon. 

The fifth command is the widest and most 
comprehensive of all. It stands forth thus : 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 31 

" Of old it was taught, Thou shalt love thy 
countryman (thy neighbor), and hate, make 
war upon, thine enemy; but I say unto you, 
Love those of other nationalities, bless them 
that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use 
and persecute you." Why pray for our per- 
secutors? So that we may deserve to be 
called sons of God, children of the Heavenly 
Jehovah. He must be our example, and the 
one thing to strive after is to be perfect, even 
as he is perfect. 

Can men be made to love their fellow men? 
Jesus says, Yes. The first thing requisite for 
this, however, is for them to have a model, an 
ideal pattern, some one who actually does live 
such a life of love for others. Jesus, therefore, 
gathers around him a certain number of disci- 
ples, and on these he tries, not only to impress 
his teachings, but, more, to show by living 
example how such teachings shall be put 
into practice. " I am the vine, ye are the 
branches." As the vine grows and puts forth 



32 THE COMING RELIGION. 

leaf and blossom, so also must the branches. 
His teaching, his words, are thus supple- 
mented by his life. His actions interpreted 
mean, Love humanity as I have loved you, 
even to the point of death. 

So vast a passion of love naturally affected 
those within its influence. As fire kindles 
fire, so love kindles love. The love which the 
Nazarene bore his disciples is reflected in 
the love they bore him. One enthusiastic 
follower, in after years, goes so far as to say, 
" I live no more, but Christ in me." Such a 
feeling carries with it the love for all human 
beings, no matter what their condition. " Jesus 
loved these poor ones/' says his disciples; 
" therefore, for the sake of Christ, my chief 
and guide, I, too, will love them." The cross 
represents this gospel; it is the symbol of 
love. That poor agonized mother who sits 
bereaved, one of her sons shot at Antietam 
in the East, the other on the Mississippi in 
the West, sees in the crucifix consolation, and 
the prayer goes up to the Christ of the five 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 33 

wounds who looks through the dark on moth- 
ers standing desolate. And he of the brother- 
hood called Jesuit, who burns and dies from 
fever on the Asiastic coast, trying to bring 
this gospel of love to others, feels amply re- 
paid, as eyeballs glaze and ears grow dull, if 
for one moment his lips can be pressed to 
the spear-wounded side of the ivory figure on 
his crucifix. 

The new kingdom of God which Jesus 
proclaimed is the kingdom of Love sung and 
chanted of by myriad choirs of priests, poets, 
and angels. From the lowest to the highest 
of humanity, in greater or less degree, is this 
same all-embracing, unquenchable love. To 
kindle this, to make it burn and flame forth 
for good, — that was the mission of Jesus. 

Again, as we reflect on this gospel, the 
heavens open ; again come forth white-winged 
angels; again is the song raised, with thousand- 
fold accompaniment, " Peace on earth, good 
will to men." 



34 THE COMING RELIGION. 



CHAPTER II. 

TN this present chapter, following out our 
definition of a religion, it is necessary 
to ask how this system of Jesus can be put 
into practice? Before a correct answer can 
be given, the plan of a universal thoecracy, 
in which all men are as brothers, — the king- 
dom of God, which Jesus desired to set up on 
earth, — must be further amplified. 

According to the Founder's idea, citizen- 
ship is not to be confined to any one class or 
nation. It is absolutely free to every man or 
woman willing to take the oath of allegiance, 
willing to swear devotion to the Nazarene's 
ideal, — the elevation and perfection of human- 
ity. The solemn charge reads : " Art thou 
willing to leave father and mother, or house, 
or children, or lands, to help make this ideal 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 35 

a reality? Art thou willing to sell all that thou 
hast and give it to the poor, and lead such a 
life as did the Master, if needs be, for the 
elevation of mankind? If so, then thou 
mayest be called a Christian, and art entitled 
to citizenship in the new kingdom. " 

It follows, of course, from the unrestrictive 
character of admission, that this kingdom 
which Jesus tried to introduce is a great de- 
mocracy ; hence it may be called the Interna- 
tional Christian Republic. In it there must 
be absolute equality, not necessarily in out- 
ward condition, but in inward states of feeling, 
— an equality of spirit, all men conformed to 
the unworldly type ; all men equally willing 
to serve humanity. This equality brought 
about, and every man being worthy the title, 
" son of God," it may be supposed that out- 
ward distinctions will prove even beneficial. 
The man in a position of power, Jesus might 
say, will use his power in aid of the weak and 
less fortunate; the man with large intellect 
will devote his time to the study and investi- 



36 THE COMING RELIGION 

gation of those things that benefit others, 
and so right through the list of the various 
trades and professions ; each man feeling all 
the while he is employed at his own special 
vocation that the universal commonwealth 
demands from him " absolutely and without 
reserve the whole residue of talents, wealth, 
and time that may remain to him after pri- 
mary claims have been satisfied. ,, 

We said that this ideal Christian kingdom 
was in reality a great democracy. It is nec- 
essary to qualify that statement, for a certain 
aristocracy is allowed, — an aristocracy not 
founded on birth, education, or manners, but 
on service. " He that will be first among you, 
let him minister unto others ; and whoever 
will be chief among you, let him be your ser- 
vant." In order that no mistake can be made 
as to the quality of the service to be rendered, 
the Founder of the universal state not only 
lays down his precepts, but lives the life of 
service for an example. " Even as the Son 
of Man came not to be ministered unto, but 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 37 

to minister, and to give his life for many/' so 
also must all those who hope to be classed 
among the aristocracy of the Christian 
kingdom. 

The founder of the ideal state has thus 
become a living example of citizenship under 
the conditions he would impose on others; 
and indeed so grandly has he lived under 
those conditions that the world reverently 
echoes the characterization which one en- 
thusiastic disciple has put into his own mouth, 
and acknowledges him the Way, the Truth, 
and the Life. 

Let it now be supposed that a man is will- 
ing to become a member of the Christian 
republic, and wishes so to act that what he 
does shall be in the highest sense for the 
benefit of those around him : how shall he 
best proceed? How does the Founder of 
the state tell him to proceed? 

As was said in the first chapter, Jesus lays 
down no long list of rules. In the New 
Testament there is written out the " Five 



38 THE COMING RELIGION. 

Christian Commandments," as they are some- 
times called, but outside of these there are 
few, if any, definite laws such as those bound 
up in our ponderous law-books, which, for 
instance, tell the people of the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts or California what 
duties they owe one to another and to the 
state, — laws at times so involved, and at other 
times so loosely drawn up, as to require 
the careful interpretation of certain men set 
apart for their study, called lawyers or judges. 
We repeat it, the Christian commonwealth 
has no such elaborate laws; and though it 
has interpreters (called preachers and priests) 
of the rules that were promulgated, yet so 
plain and simple are these that the humblest 
citizen can understand them, without the aid 
of learned scholars or teachers. 

The reason for this lack of specific regu- 
lations seems apparent. Take the case of a 
man who has no desire and could not even 
be induced to murder, steal, commit adultery, 
or plunge into drunkenness: of what use is 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS, 39 

it to lay down laws forbidding him to do 
such things ? Within himself there is a 
strong restraint or inner law which keeps 
from wrong-doing, independent of interdict. 
Were he to live where such immoral acts are 
allowed, among Patagonians or Ashantees, 
he would not be more likely to commit 
them. Not outward coercion, but inward 
control, withholds him. 

Whence this inward restraint? How can 
it be created? For clearly if it can be gen- 
erated, then it is most valuable, and when all 
men possess it, then there will be no more 
need for law courts and outward police disci- 
pline. In certain cases such inward restraint 
is inherited, a hereditary birthright acquired 
through long generations of right-acting peo- 
ple. Again, it may come from education 
which shows the hurtfulness of wrong actions 
to self as well as to others. When thus 
produced, it cannot always be relied upon. 
Sometimes the sad spectacle is presented of 
men doing wrong through the strength of 



40 THE COMING RELIGION. 

their passions, although their thought tells 
them quite plainly the after-consequence of 
such indulgence. In the case of that large 
class of men born without self-control, what 
shall be done? Is there any other method 
besides that of education by which they can 
be reached? 

Another method is suggested by Jesus. 
He tries to give to every man, not so 
much a right knowledge, as a grand passion, 
— one that will subdue and conquer all baser 
passions, and, like a burning flame, eat out 
the dross and impurity in his nature. Love, 
according to the Nazarene, must be the 
dominating passion, — first for the Heavenly 
Father, so good, kind, and perfect as to be 
worthy of all adoration, and then for one 
another, as being God's children, and there- 
fore brothers. If love can be infused into a 
man, Jesus might say, it works wonderful 
transformations ; as, for example, the man 
into whose heart has come the love for a 
pure, high-minded, noble woman. Before 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 41 

his nature was so influenced, he may have 
committed unchaste acts, which now he would 
banish even from his thought. He still has 
the old sensual inclinations, but the new 
passion is so much stronger that it drives 
out of his nature even unsuitable sugges- 
tions. Or take a mother, with love in her heart 
for her child : she does not need to be told 
to clothe, feed, and educate it; neither 
does she need to be warned against neglect- 
ing or cruelly treating it Her affection is a 
law unto itself, and will impel and restrain 
correctly. 

Love, then, in the Christian system is not 
only the inner constraining force which is to 
keep men from wrong-doing, but also the 
inner impelling power which will lead them 
to right acts without the additional incentive 
of religious commands and regulations com- 
mencing " Thou shalt do," or " Thou shalt 
not do." But is love enough? Even in the 
case of a mother, is not something more 
needed? Granted she has this impelling 



42 THE COMING RELIGION. 

desire, at the same time must she not also 
know what articles of diet are best for the 
child, how it should be clothed in summer, 
and again in winter, what schools are most 
helpful, and numerous other things equally- 
important? To advance in our subject, we 
will imagine that every applicant for Chris- 
tian citizenship has not only a desire to act 
for the benefit of others, but, even more, 
possesses for his fellows, as does the mother 
for her child, this positive love enjoined by 
Jesus, so that he would seek their interests 
and serve them: the question still remains 
unanswered, " How shall he best proceed to 
do it ? " Again we turn to the Founder of 
the commonwealth to see what he dictates. 
The first thing to strike our attention is the 
story of the good Samaritan. This story 
shows that Jesus would have us relieve phy- 
sical suffering. We are confirmed in this 
opinion by the words of the judge in the 
allegorical picture of the end of the world, 
where he proclaims, " I was an hungered, and 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 43 

ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye 
gave me no drink; a stranger, and ye took 
me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; 
sick and in prison, and ye visited me not." 

Apparently, then, if our love be of the true 
Christian kind, it must go out in the allevia- 
tion of distress and in the binding up the 
broken heart. Still, even when this is said, the 
question in the system of the Nazarene is not 
really answered, " What shall we do? " 

Is it to be inferred that one's duty as a 
citizen of the ideal state is performed when, 
if he sees a poor Chinaman or negro by the 
wayside, bleeding and torn, he help him and 
bind up his wounds? Is one's obligation to 
the commonwealth discharged by sending 
clothes to the destitute and food for the hun- 
gry to the public soup-houses or restaurants? 
Is there nothing more to do? Surely some- 
thing more is needed. The mere following 
out in the year 1893 A. D. of things pre- 
scribed nineteen hundred years ago would be 
foolish ; hence Christians of to-day assert, and 



44 THE COMING RELIGION. 

the inference seems warranted, that Jesus laid 
down so few rules and regulations because 
such laws, let them be drafted ever so wisely, 
will in time be outgrown, on account of the 
ever-varying conditions of each new century. 
There are no special laws promulgated tell- 
ing Christians what to do and what not to do. 
All that is told is, — 

First: Love your neighbor, your brother. 

Second: Do what you can for his comfort 
and well being if he is in physical or mental 
distress. 

Third: Do it as your best thought and 
experience tell you you would like it done 
unto yourself. 

To this point the Christian's Leader and 
Guide conducts his followers. He then, tell- 
ing them that the spirit of truth will guide, 
bids them farewell. They must make their 
own precedents. 

Has, then, the system of Jesus nothing more 
to say as to actions? Nothing more perhaps 
as to the outward details of life, no minute 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS, 45 

suggestions for complicated exigencies. Its 
mission, as has been shown, is to touch the 
heart, to awaken the emotional nature, rather 
than to give the mind a nice power in the 
balancing of social and economic questions, or 
in the determination of what each man should 
do for his family, his neighbor, and the com- 
munity at large. And yet certain things are 
implied as to ways and methods of life, even 
though not explicitly stated. Beyond a 
doubt, certain objects which have always 
been eagerly sought for are disparaged by 
the religion of Jesus. Take, for illustration, 
the pursuit of wealth. As was shown above, 
Jesus did not primarily aim to bring all men 
to the same objective equality. He could not, 
and still retain the principle of individualism, 
of a free and uninterrupted growth from 
within, out; yet nowhere will one find stronger 
statements against rich men than in the Naz- 
arene's teachings. 

If the equal distribution of goods and 
money is not meant by Jesus, what then is 



46 " THE COMING RELIGION. 

meant by such a story as that of Dives and 
Lazarus, by the injunction, " Go sell all that 
thou hast," and by the statement that it is 
harder for a rich man to enter into the king- 
dom of Heaven than for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle? What is the application 
of the Beatitude, " Blessed be ye poor, for 
yours is the kingdom of God " ? To under- 
stand this Beatitude and the other allusions 
to riches, it must be remembered that Jesus 
attempted to do two things for every human 
being. 

First: To infuse each man with love. 

Second ': To promote in every one personal 
holiness. 

Through love a man is impelled to help 
others ; but such neighborly kindness is not 
enough, says the Christian system, — he must 
not only help elevate his neighbor in the 
moral scale, he must also perfect himself. A 
kindly disposed man can easily be imagined 
who, actuated by a sincere feeling of fellow- 
ship, helps his friends to the best of his ability, 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 47 

yet at the same time taking little thought for 
his own spiritual advancement. Although 
thus warm-hearted and generous for others, he 
may "go to the bad" himself through want of 
strong moral aspirations. That system which 
simply teaches one his duties to his fellows 
may be a good philanthropic system, but 
it is undeserving of the name religion. A 
religion must tell its adherents not simply 
how to make others happier and better, but 
how to make themselves better. The great 
end of the Nazarene's system is to raise each 
individual nearer and nearer the God-like. 
The injunction never to be forgotten is, " Be 
ye perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is 
perfect." The ideal is — 

First: The ELEVATION of humanity (through 
good deeds and kindly offices). 

Second: The PERFECTION of humanity 
(each man growing more divine in his own 
character). 

Nothing stands so much in the way of 
growth in holiness as riches. Wealth brings 



48 THE COMING RELIGION. 

temptations which are almost irresistible. 
Strong indeed is that man who can resist 
them ; hence, it would seem, Jesus inveighed 
against riches, not because the rich man 
ought not to exist (for the man of wealth 
can do much toward the elevation of human- 
ity), but because, in view of his own possible 
perfection, his wealth is as a great millstone 
around his neck, continually pulling him to 
the earth, and making his growth in holiness 
wellnigh impossible. 

A digression here, in order briefly to note 
some of the temptations which come with 
wealth, will not be out of place. 

The first of these is, of course, selfishness. 
Surrounded by luxurious things, having every 
wish and whim gratified, enjoying physical 
comfort, able to go here or there, to do this 
or that thing, a man very soon gets into the 
habit of thinking about the world as though 
it were made for him and his enjoyment. A 
continual indulgence of one's own desires 
becomes second nature, and it grows more 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 49 

and more difficult for the indulged person 
to take into consideration the comfort and 
convenience of others whose comfort and 
happiness conflict with his own. Such sel- 
fishness is just the opposite of that unselfish- 
ness which thinks little of its own happiness 
and delights in service for others ; hence its 
condemnation. 

Another difficulty residing in riches is the 
temptation to arrogance, — that proud and as- 
sertive spirit which is opposed to the gentle- 
ness and meekness praised in the Beatitudes. 
The rich man by reason of his wealth is 
a power. Feeling his power over certain 
others, he is scarcely likely to treat them 
with that respect which he would feel if they 
were his equals. A millionnaire, owning five 
hundred slaves, or working the same number 
of " hands," as he calls them, seldom brings 
to his mind, as he orders them about, that 
they are heads and hearts as well, that they 
too, as he, are sons of God. 

A third harm occasioned by wealth is 
4 



JO THE COMING RELIGION. 

irresolution of purpose. It lessens the will- 
power by taking away motive and need. As 
a rule, rich men's sons and daughters lack an 
ideal, they have nothing to work for. Their 
wealth begets timidity, conservatism, conven- 
tionality. They grow anti-enthusiastic. But 
the very first quality of the Christian must 
be enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for the cause 
(called the Gospel), enthusiasm for the com- 
monwealth (the kingdom of God), enthusiasm 
for one's fellows (termed love). 

There is no need further to particularize. 
The evils, the temptations, of riches are so 
exactly the opposite of the qualities which 
Jesus would have in every citizen of the 
universal state that he must perforce de- 
nounce wealth, and in every way show that 
it is to be the last thought in the Christian's 
mind ; hence men are called to forsake, not 
only parents and children, but houses and 
lands (wealth), to sell all that they possess, 
rather than fail in acquiring this spirit of 
enthusiasm so essential for true citizenship. 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 5 I 

" Seek ye first the kingdom of God," so 
reads the command. A large, unselfish 
standard of happiness is thus uplifted before 
the world. One must merge his desires in 
those of others, working for them and the 
ideal state, losing his life, as it were, so that 
he may indeed find it again larger, more 
complete, through the life of those around 
him, and in and by them obtain that com- 
plete inner satisfaction and content which is 
called peace, — that peace which Jesus meant 
when, after exhorting his followers to show 
their love by keeping his commandments, 
he said, " My peace I give you : not as the 
world giveth, give I unto you." 

Perhaps of supremest importance as a 
stimulus to growth in holiness is the be- 
lief that the all-seeing eye of the Heavenly 
Father is ever upon his children. It is he 
who searches out the innermost secrets of the 
human heart. Before him, at every moment, 
all human beings stand in the nakedness of 
their real natures. 



52 THE COMING RELIGION. 

It has been previously shown how Jesus, 
going back of actions, emphasizes the thoughts 
and intentions from which they spring. " Not 
that which goeth into the mouth defileth a 
man, but that which cometh out of the mouth ; 
for those things that thus come forth are 
from the heart," are his words. Amplified, 
his argument would be : You are angry, you 
wish harm to your neighbor ; but what is that 
passion but the action of your mind, — your 
soul? The deed which might follow is but 
the consequent mechanical action. Your 
mind commands, the muscles obey. The 
responsibility, then, is within. There the act 
is or is not performed. 

Responsibility to whom or to what? might 
be asked. Man-made laws cannot take cog- 
nizance of thoughts. No ; but the Heavenly 
Father can, for he who seeth in secret 
shall reward thee openly if thou doest right. 
Nothing can be hidden from him. Pure as 
celestial light, he shines down into the human 
soul. As the rays of the sun flashing upon 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 53 

the bosom of a stream disclose not only the 
beautiful, but the foul, so this Holy Spirit of 
the Father reveals to each what he actually 
is. Awful indeed is this teaching when it 
is believed with the ardor of one's whole 
heart. Never to be alone, never to have a 
wish to one's self, never to hold a single 
thought in secret, never to have a proud 
passion or a foolish fancy unhidden from 
the observation of God ! Forever and for- 
ever to be under the steady gaze of an Eye 
that never sleeps, of which the sun with its 
myriad light-giving rays is but the symbol, — 
this indeed is the fear of the Lord, which is 
the beginning of wisdom and holiness. 

If one fully believes in such an omnipres- 
ent One, he cannot thoughtlessly indulge 
imagination in impure suggestions, or allow 
unhallowed desires to intrude upon his mind. 
The risk is too great, the shame too over- 
powering. A sphere of virtue is thus set up 
beyond the opinions of men, and it is from 
this central point that actions will emanate. 



54 THE COMING RELIGION. 

Again, not only does this inner presence 
restrain, it also animates to holy thinking, 
and thus to acting. Standing by us when 
no other eye can restrain or encourage is 
this controlling, approving, and rewarding 
power. Intimate communion may be had 
with it through prayer when, as it were, it 
flashes on the spiritual retina worthier and 
purer ideals, reaches down and whispers of 
loftier aims, and leads the soul on to a self- 
renunciation so that in moments of deepest 
sorrow and anguish it is nevertheless able 
to look up through its pain and tears and 
say, " Not my will, but thine, O God, be 
done." 

Let us pause here, and recalling our defini- 
tion of a religion, ask what it is that the re- 
ligion of Jesus gives as the supreme object 
of worship? We have found it to be the 
thought of a personal God conceived of 
under the form of the Heavenly Father 
Passionate devotion for him is excited by the 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 55 

thought of his great love and ceaseless care 
for his earthly children. Each moment we live 
we are dependent on his bountifulness, and are 
thus everlasting debtors. Even life itself is 
not too great a sacrifice for him. Thus often 
is the debt paid, and the triumphant soul 
cries out, " It is finished. " Devotion is also 
aroused by the thought of the Heavenly 
Father's nearness and constant companion- 
ship. If one will but desire it so, he may, 
through the communion of the Holy Spirit, 
have his finite strength supplemented by the 
divine strength, his earthly wisdom enlarged 
by visions of the actual, and his nature quick- 
ened and refreshed by that bread which 
cometh from above. Thus living nearer and 
nearer to the heart of the ruler of the world, 
he will at length be able to appreciate the 
real truth of those words of Jesus when, in a 
moment of exalted feeling, he prayed for his 
disciples " that they all may be one, as thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in thee." 

The religion of Jesus has its word to say 



56 THE COMING RELIGION. 

in regard to conduct. It gives us commands 
not specially to cover outward acts, but to 
reach back of them and control the thoughts, 
impulses, desires, and passions from which 
they spring ; more, it puts before every man 
two great lines of conduct, by one of which 
he can help to a higher life his neighbor, and 
by the other himself. It does not stop here, — 
it lays the corner-stone of an unseen but very 
real commonwealth which shall be co-exten- 
sive with the world, and in which all citizens 
shall acknowledge their common brotherhood 
and their mutual interdependence. 

It inspires a hope, — that of going to the 
heavenly home, the place of many mansions, 
and knowing in the end the Father's glad 
approbation, the " Well done, good and faith- 
ful servant,'* and the eternal joy of Paradise 
amid angels and archangels, and the thousand 
choirs that surround God's throne. It fosters 
a fear, — that of the All-Seeing Eye, and 
eventually, if duty has been neglected, if love 
has not been the motive force of life, if the 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 57 

cup of cold water has been withheld or the 
sick unattended, of being shut out (as were 
the foolish virgins) from that glad, grand 
place of celestial life and light, and consigned 
by the Judge to a mysterious place of dark- 
ness and unhallowedness, where there shall 
be weeping and remorse and bitter anguish 
of soul. 

Its Gospel is thus seen to be in very truth 
that proclaimed in the early days of Jesus' 
ministry, when he said, quoting the language 
of the prophet Isaiah, I am come, — 

To bring good tidings to the poor ; 

To heal the broken-hearted ; 

To preach deliverance to the captives ; 

To proclaim the year of God (that is, the 
setting up of the commonwealth) ; 

The day of God's vengeance ; 

To comfort those who mourn (classing 
them among the blessed) ; 

To give them beauty and joy for the spirit 
of heaviness. 

Beauty and joy are indeed the heritage 



58 THE COMING RELIGION 

of those who through faith can lay hold 
of this Christian religion. Joy, because one 
is no longer under the law of some vast im- 
personal force that, without warning, may 
come at any moment to crush out of exist- 
ence its million devotees ; joy, too, that one 
is henceforth not to be known as debtor or 
slave to some fierce, vindictive power ruling 
above, who may, at his own good pleasure, 
unheedfully pass by the supplications of his 
worshippers, — inexpressible joy that one is 
rather to be known as a son of the Heavenly 
Father, and called joint heir with Jesus in the 
celestial home, that he may, even here and 
now, commune through prayer with the ever- 
lasting God who listens so sympathetically to 
human cries for pity and help, and will not 
turn his heart of love even from the outcast if 
he be truly repentant. 

Then the beauty to which one is admitted ! 
— a beauty as far transcending that of the 
Greeks as the infinite transcends the finite. 
In the old days exquisiteness of outward 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 59 

form was known, for Phidias and Praxiteles 
had wrought, and hard, unyielding marble 
was made to give up the beauty that was 
encased within. The Olympic games had 
been played, and the victors in those contests 
had brought the human form to a degree of 
perfection in grace, strength, and suppleness 
never before known ; but what was all this 
combined, which man could do, compared 
with the works of God? Artificers, silver- 
smiths, and costumers had done their best to 
array Israel's king in colors of glory; but 
their efforts paled before one touch of the 
Heavenly Father from whose hand came forth 
the beauty of the lily. " Solomon in all his 
glory was not arrayed like one of these/' said 
the Galilean rabbi. "If God so clothes the 
grass, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast 
into the oven, shall he not much more 
clothe you, his dear children? " Just as the 
beauty of muscle and living form exceeds in 
value the beauty of clay and marble, just so 
does the beauty of true living, moral beauty, 



60 THE COMING RELIGION. 

exceed simple physical beauty. This moral 
beauty is what Jesus promises. It is the 
beauty of holiness. As the dross of the brute 
nature is eaten out more and more by the 
strong passion for righteousness ; as impurity, 
deceit, and all manner of vileness give way 
before purity and truth and all manner of 
goodness, — the image of the Father, which 
is in every one, shall shine forth clearer and 
clearer. 

Again, the oftener the Christian rises to 
the mount of prayer, and there obtains truer 
knowledge of the Most High, the oftener his 
spirit comes into contact with the Almighty 
Holiness, the more is he transfigured and 
made divine ; and when eventually — for so 
daring a hope does the Nazarene hold out to 
his followers — he can stand on the loftiest 
peak of Zion, thoroughly clean of hand and 
pure of heart, and in rapt ecstasy lift his 
face on high, there shall come to him a 
gleam, a moment's sight, of the Father, — " he 
shall see God." As in perfect faith and trust 



THE RELIGION OF JESUS. 6 1 

he again returns to his work in the world, 
the fashion of his countenance (as that of the 
lawgiver of old) shall be changed; for the 
streaming light which has transfigured it to 
celestial beauty has shone down from the 
very throne of the Almighty from the tender, 
loving heart of the source of all beauty, even 
of the Father of all mankind. 



PART II. 

» 

THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE; 

OR, 

THE GOSPEL OF EVOLUTION. 



PART II. 



CHAPTER III. 

\\ 7TTHIN these past fifty years another 
religion has silently sprung up in the 
civilized world side by side with Christianity, 
having its priests, its prophets, and its watch- 
words. This new religion has been the out- 
come of the great advance made in the 
knowledge of things as they are, and has 
been greatly fashioned and helped by recent 
discoveries and inventions. Let us call it 
the Religion of Science, or the Gospel of 
Evolution. 

Very different indeed is this religion, when 
first looked at, from that of Christianity. We 
miss in it the simplicity of statement, the 
child-like aspect of faith ; vaster is it in its con- 
ceptions, and much more complex. While 



66 THE COMING RELIGION. 

the religion of Jesus appeals primarily to our 
emotional nature, this of Science speaks to 
our thought and reason. It calls us, not to 
faith, but to the deepest inquiry ; not away 
from the world, but to the observation of the 
meanest and smallest as well as the largest 
objects and phenomena of the world. Not 
so easily can its doctrines be expressed as in 
the case of other religions ; for it is still in a 
fluid and formative condition, and the word of 
no one prophet or priest is taken by its fol- 
lowers as final. It is, indeed, because of the 
very humbleness and tentativeness with which 
all its opinions are expressed, and the caution 
we are told to exercise in the acceptance of 
them, that the chief difficulty lies when we 
come to formulate them as a system. 

First as to an object of worship. Science 
gives, as does Christianity, a God for the 
supreme object of veneration. This deity is, 
however, so different in conception from that 
generally thought of when the word " God " is 
used, that certain scientists deny altogether 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 6 1 / 

their belief in such a Power. We must not be 
misled by terms ; and because those honored 
ones endeared by long usage, such as "Je- 
hovah," " Heavenly Father," " God," " The 
Lord," are now abandoned by the followers 
of this new religion, it must not therefore be 
supposed that their system fails them at the 
very start For our own convenience, we 
will continue to adhere to the term " God," 
whether all scientists are agreed or not as to 
its use, and attempt to see what conception 
underlies those new names which in the 
nomenclature of Science take the place of 
the hallowed expression, " Our Father who 
art in Heaven." 

To understand the scientific idea of God, 
we must first understand the scientific con- 
ception of the universe. So that we may 
the more easily grasp this conception, let us 
contrast it with the old idea of the world and 
of the heavens. 

The Judaic-Christian thought, as given in 
various parts of the Bible, was of a flat surface 



68 THE COMING RELIGION. 

called the earth, above which was a rounded 
dome or firmament named heaven. In 
this firmament were fixed the planets and 
stars, and at its zenith was placed the eternal 
throne of God. There, surrounded by his 
angels, the heavenly hosts, Jehovah reigned 
supreme over all creation, and from this 
exalted position administered, through the 
instrumentality of the celestial messengers, 
justice to mankind on earth, punishing those 
who transgressed even unto the third and 
fourth generations, and rewarding those who 
did righteously by transferring them from 
earth to this heavenly Paradise. Underneath 
the earth was Sheol, — place of shadows and 
darkness, presided over by a powerful but 
fallen and rebellious angel called Satan, or 
the Devil. Through the machinations of this 
wicked one, human beings were tempted to 
do wrong and to disobey the injunctions of 
God, and much, if not all, the misery and 
bloodshed among men was directly attributa- 
ble to him. 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 69 

In contrast to this conception of the world 
and the universe, Science teaches that in- 
stead of this earth being a flat surface and the 
centre of things, it is just the reverse. The 
earth is a sphere, a nearly rounded ball, flash- 
ing and gliding through space at an almost 
incredible rate of speed. Instead of the sun's 
moving around this earth, as it appears, the 
earth is moving around the sun; and through 
its double motion — on its own axis and 
around the fiery central body — - the changes 
of day and night and the seasons are pro- 
duced upon the earth. This world-globe is 
indeed but as a grain of sand, says Science, 
in comparison to the mighty systems, of suns, 
planets, and satellites that dot infinite space ; 
and far from its being the centre of things, 
our earth is but a little obscure portion of 
that gigantic whole which we see by looking 
into the heavens, and which astronomers call 
the Kosmos. All these worlds and stars that 
move so wonderfully, like flashes of light, 
through illimitable areas, carrying fire and 



THE COMING RELIGION. 



snow upon their surfaces, — all these huge 
globes are so perfectly balanced by opposite 
forces that they swing light as feathers in 
their orbits, though weighing billions of tons. 
The blue above, which is called heaven, says 
the priest of Science, is not a palpable some- 
thing, a vaster glorified region above the 
earth, an eternal Paradise, Far from this, it 
is but an optical illusion produced by minute 
opaque particles floating in space, Indeed, 
there is no " up in heaven," for " up" and 
''down" are merely relative terms. That 
which is up now, in twelve hours from now 
will be down ; and therefore it is inexact — 
mere poetical license — to speak of ascending 
into heaven, or descending from heaven upon 
the earth. 

The Judaic-Christian theory of creation is 
of God (conceived of more or less distinctly 
in human form, or if not in human form, at 
least as a Presence separate from this earth) 
speaking, and the earth being brought forth 
from the void. After this act of creation, says 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE, J l 

the Bible, the sun and the stars were made, 
then plants and animals, lastly man, fully 
grown and as perfect in body, as well shaped 
physically, as he is to-day, The scientific 
theory of creation is that of a slow unfold- 
ment through years and ages and aeons, No 
outside factor, no special creator, is believed 
in. The force, the potency of creation is in- 
herent in the world-stuff, in the elemental fire- 
mist. Attraction, repulsion, gravitation, ex- 
pansion , contraction, — all those terms, which 
show how things come together or separate, 
are qualities of that substance which, standing 
over against the thinking brain, is apprehended 
as "matter" What this matter is per se 
we can never know, All our knowledge of 
matter is merely relative. We know it 
through its manifestations, — through phe- 
nomena. Given certain conditions, and mat- 
ter always appears under a certain form ; 
given other exterior conditions, and matter 
shows itself in quite different forms. The 
way a thing invariably acts under- certain con- 



J2 THE COMING RELIGION. 

ditions is called the law of manifestation, 
Let us try to get a fuller, more popular idea 
of law. 

I hold in my hand a ball, and then let it go. 
What happens? It does not go up in the 
air, perform zigzags, perhaps fly to the right 
or the left, it falls to the ground. I can per- 
form the experiment a thousand times, always 
with but one result. In America, in Europe, 
from the tops of mountains, at sea-level, there 
is always the same invariable action. This 
tendency of the earth and the ball to draw 
toward each other is called the law of gravi- 
tation, or the law of the attraction of matter 
for matter. The way things invariably act is 
what is meant, then, by their law. The law 
governing a substance can be roughly defined 
as the tendency (or property) which that par- 
ticular thing has to act always in a certain 
way and in no other way. 

Life, then, on the earth, says Science, ap- 
peared according to law, and not according 
to caprice. It unfolded through millions of 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 73 

years in natural ways, through just such 
ways and by just such laws as are now 
manifest. First, space filled with fire-mist; 
then this heated stuff, cooling and condens- 
ing according to the laws of motion, formed 
great balls in a semi-fluid condition. One 
of these, our earth, radiating its heat through 
space, became cooler and cooler. The con- 
tracting and hardening of its surface caused 
depressions and elevations, mountains and val- 
leys, As yet there was no soil, the earth was 
but a vast cinder; but by and by the vapor- 
ous cloud above and around condensed and 
descended as water, deluging the surface of 
the earth with rain, wearing off portions of 
the rock, breaking down peaks and hill-tops, 
which, descending and crashing into millions 
of particles, covered the plains and valleys 
with a rough soil, The heat from the sun, 
the steaming waters from the condensing 
clouds, uniting with the force in the soil, 
brought forth crude, imperfect forms of vege- 
table life, organic, and yet differing so slightly 



74 THE COMING RELIGION. 

from the inorganic that the line of demar- 
cation might not be found, the new sub- 
stance being mere albuminous matter. Great 
changes in temperature, carbonic-acid gas 
thrown off in quantities, and rapid growth 
takes place. In these elemental life-forms 
mosses are developed, lycopodiums and mon- 
strous ferns. The wind-currents scatter the 
seeds and germs, and these soon propagate 
in every part of the earth's soil as it becomes 
fit to support vegetable life. On and on the 
world kept spinning as it does now, and shall 
do for uncounted centuries ; and the changes 
in the condition of the earth's surface, com- 
bined with atmospheric variations, caused life- 
forms to be modified with their variable 
environment. They become more compli- 
cated, more developed. Forms now appear 
concerning which scientists are hardly agreed 
as to whether they should be classed as vege- 
table or animal. The reservoirs of waters 
produce uncouth marine creatures ; some of 
these evolve into reptiles; then, with wings 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. J$ 

outstretched, after the form of birds, they 
take new shapes ; and so through ages the 
process, continuing, even as it is now going 
on, produced all the varied and wonderful 
kinds of plant and animal life of which at 
present we have knowledge. " Even the 
summit of being, man himself, thus came 
into existence," says Science. 

Christianity, as has been stated above, 
starting with the Jewish Genesis, teaches that 
man was fashioned by the creative hand of 
the heavenly Jehovah, who then breathed in- 
to him the breath of life, and he became a 
complete physical and moral being. Science 
teaches that he slowly developed from lower 
animal forms, that this development is still 
going on, and will go on until higher, fairer 
forms even than we dream of are reached. 
It says, in the words of Saint Paul, " It doth 
not yet appear what we shall be," but it 
prophesies that " we shall all come unto the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." 



76 THE COMING RELIGION. 

The scientific conception of God can now 
be more easily understood. When Science 
defines God as " the Eternal Energy from 
which all things proceed," as " the One 
Eternal Reality" back of all phenomena, 
" the Evolutional Push," " the Immanent 
Creative Force," we are not wholly at a loss 
as to the meaning of these terms, and com- 
prehend that a double-faced unity is meant, 
disclosing itself to our senses as matter, and 
apprehended in the operations of our thought 
as mind. This ever-becoming, ever-changing, 
yet inherently changeless and eternal, is the 
supreme object of worship, is the God of 
Science. 

Keeping ever in mind our definition of 
religion, let us now ask whether this object 
of worship given by Science excites passionate 
devotion leading even to self-sacrifice. 

I think the question has only to be 
asked to be answered in the affirmative. No 
devotee of many-limbed Vishnu, no wor- 
shipper before the holy temple of Jehovah, 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. JJ 

no consecrated monk of Middle Ages vowing 
his life to Christ and to his cause, was ever 
more indefatigable in serving his God than 
are these scientists in serving theirs. Day by 
day they seek to know more of him and of 
his ways, saying, in the words of the evangelist, 
" This is life eternal, to know thee the only 
true God." They speak of this seeking as 
a search for truth; and for this truth they 
are willing to spend long nights and days 
in difficult and tedious experimental labor. 
Like monks fleeing to their cells to commune 
with God, shutting out the distractions of 
society and the artificial pleasures of men, 
so these scientists seek secluded spots, or 
shut themselves up in narrow laboratories 1 and 
dark chemical rooms, that they may come 
into more direct contact with the supreme 
object of their minds; and just as Hindoo 
devotees of religion hope by concentrating 
all their thought on Brahma to learn more of 

i A laboratory is a sanctuary which nothing profane 
should enter. — Agassiz. 



78 THE COMING RELIGION. 

the inner spirit of their God, to catch revela- 
tions of him, as it were, so these scientists 
concentrate all their thought and study on 
their God, hoping thus to have revealed to 
them more accurately the secret of his 
ways. 

Almost all religions exact much from their 
enthusiastic believers. The things of this 
world cannot well be possessed by him who 
wishes to be known as a sincere follower of 
the ideal which his religion sets before him. 
The Roman Catholic monk must renounce 
wealth and worldly pleasures ; he must give 
his life wholly to the service of the Church, 
being willing to suffer poverty and affliction, 
even death, for the sake of his faith. 

The religion of Science is equally exacting. 
Its adherents must give up all hope of wealth, 
must be willing to endure poverty, must set 
at naught the joys of companionship, must 
keep in mind above all things, as of supre- 
mest importance, this search for truth, must 
be willing to face the Inquisitors and their 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 79 

punishments as did Galileo, they must be 
willing to suffer revilings and persecutions 
as did Descartes, and must not fear death if 
it comes as a consequence of their devotion. 
Patiently, uncomplainingly, the true scientist 
must be willing to hear his interpretation of 
the Holy Bible as he reads and translates it 
to the multitude from geologic rock and 
coral island and mastodon skeleton and pet- 
rified plant, laughed at and hooted and called 
a false writing, a spurious revelation, a satanic 
testament. Yes, he must be willing to have 
his name, connected with the gospel he pro- 
mulgates, used as a term of reproach and 
ridicule, as with the Prophet Darwin. Right 
here we notice how, at present, the followers 
of the religion of Science, as formerly with 
the followers of the religion of the Nazarene, 
have to bear the master's name as a term of 
reproach ; " He is a Darwinian " implying 
the same stigma of popular contempt that 
" he is a Christian " did nearly eighteen hun- 
dred years ago. 



SO THE COMING RELIGION. 

This passionate devotion to their religion 
is shown too by scientists in their willingness 
to travel over the ice and snows of Arctic 
regions, to penetrate into fever-haunted trop- 
ical countries, into dark forests and into pest- 
stricken cities. Truly men of no other relig- 
ion have shown more willingness to go to the 
ends of the earth, if need be, or to enter and 
serve hospitals and asylums, than these same 
scientists. Although ofttimes cold and re- 
served, scientists are capable of as much 
emotion and exhibit as great agitation when 
a new law of their Deity is revealed them 
as did ever Moses on Mount Sinai', or the 
Apostles Paul and Peter in the presence of 
heavenly visions. Take the unbounded joy 
of Newton when about to be assured that his 
theory concerning the attraction of gravita- 
tion influencing the moon's motion was in- 
deed a law of God, and Kepler's exclamatory 
joy in regard to the starry heavens. Read the 
lives of Harvey, of Herschel, of Faraday, and 
of a hundred others. Remember the expedi- 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 8 1 

tions of Ross and Humboldt and Parry, and 
you will have ample illustrations of intensity 
of feeling, of passionate devotion, and of self- 
sacrificing activity. 

Another sign of intense enthusiasm is seen 
in the literature of a religion. If the religion 
is fully believed in, if it is very dear to those 
holding it, then they cannot rest content 
with simply enjoying it by themselves, they 
want others to know the " good news," they 
desire to promulgate their gospel; and in the 
writing out of their faith, — of what they 
believe true, — these promulgators often rise 
into the realms of exalted poetical feeling, 
giving to the world the psalms and hymns 
of joy so precious afterwards to converts. 

Judged from this standpoint, the religion 
of Science compares most favorably with any 
other. The press has poured forth its litera- 
ture, and libraries are to-day crowded with 
what its exponents have to say on this or 
that article of belief, this or that law of God. 
Modestly are these statements made, as is be- 
6 



82 THE COMING RELIGION. 

coming to the teachers of a new revelation. 
Surely to none since the days of him who 
said it, can the words of Jesus be more truly 
applied than to that master-teacher, Charles 
Darwin: "My judgment is just, because I seek 
not mine own will." Even indeed as the 
worshippers of Varuna and Indra broke forth 
into hymns of joy, or as Jehovah's followers 
uttered psalms of gratitude, so is it with the 
worshippers of this Nature-Force. Exclaims 
one who in this country has long stood as 
an interpreter of the Evolutionary gospel, — 

" The one life thrilled the star-dust through, 
In nebulous masses whirled, 
Until, globed like a drop of dew, 
Shone out a new-made world. 

" The one life in the jungles old 
From lowly creeping things 
Did ever some new form unfold, — 
Swift feet, or soaring wings. 

" The one life reacheth onward still ; 
As yet no eye may see 
The far-off fact man's dream fulfil, — 
The glory yet to be." x 

1 Minot J. Savage. 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 83 

Wordsworth in the following lines, like a 
foreteller, a prophet, of the religion of Sci- 
ence, has expressed what many an Evolu- 
tionist has felt. Perhaps nowhere is the 
whole faith and thought of Science better 
summarized : — 

" I have felt ... a sense sublime 
Of something far more subtly interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean, and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
And rolls through all things." 



84 THE COMING RELIGION. 



CHAPTER IV. 

*THHE question which must next be asked 
of Science is, What has it to say in re- 
gard to conduct? That is, what ought to be 
done, and what ought not to be done? 

Before going into detail, Science gives as a 
general rule this religious command : Obey 
the laws of the Universe. To each individual 
she says : Be adapted to your environment ; 
or, more explicitly stated : Put yourself into 
harmony with those physical conditions which 
surround you, live not in discord, but in con- 
cord, with the laws of your being, so that you 
may develop into the ripest, fairest, most 
perfect form which is possible for a human 
being. 

To illustrate what is meant by thus adapt- 
ing one's self to the needful conditions, we 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 85 

will suppose it to be summer-time. Here is 
a strong, robust man going thinly clad : he is 
quite comfortable ; digestion, respiration, and 
mental activity go on naturally. The weather 
changes : autumn follows summer, and then 
come the cold winds of winter. The man, in 
the pride of strength and health, fails to put 
on warmer clothes to meet the increased wants 
of his body. The consequence is well known. 
Failing to adapt himself to the changing phys- 
ical conditions, pneumonia or inflammation 
in some form sets in, and before long he lies 
a corpse. Here is another person who goes 
counter to the laws of diet Over-eating, or 
rich food at unseasonable hours, brings on 
dyspepsia or gout; and such pain continues 
to be his until he conforms himself to the 
laws governing digestion and rest. Failing 
in such conformity, he can expect no peace 
or health ; disaster to his body and a short- 
ened life are the inevitable results. 

At the start, then, it is seen that whatever 
other duties a man may have in this world, 



86 THE COMING RELIGION. 

Science insists that his primary duty is to 
himself. He must first of all take care of 
his body by obeying the laws governing it, 
and strive in all necessary ways so to harmo- 
nize himself with his surroundings that he 
may develop as perfect a physical condition 
as possible. Science takes a wide sweep as 
to religious conduct, classing not only un- 
selfish deeds, but those actions ordinarily 
thought of as personal and selfish, among 
the acts which should be known as right and 
good. The reason for such insistence is that 
any further human development depends 
upon a proper physical foundation. Man can- 
not progress into spiritual ripeness, says the 
Scientific Gospel, if he neglect the essential 
substructure. Good grain can come only from 
a good soil; and good society can be created 
only from healthy, vigorous, well-developed 
human beings, — from reasonable, sane-acting 
men and women. 

In a different fashion, therefore, must the 
devotee of the religion of Science look upon 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 87 

certain actions which are commonly supposed 
to have no religious significance. If the 
chief end to keep in view is how to promote 
the greatest possible development of life- 
giving energies, then clearly those actions 
which hinder or lessen the strength of life's 
forces must be considered irreligious. 

This thought is forcibly brought out in the 
writings of Herbert Spencer, an acknowl- 
edged authority concerning this new religion. 
I use his illustrations. A student who, think- 
ing exclusively of intellectual claims on him, 
reads night after night with hot or aching 
head, and, breaking down, returns home shat- 
tered in health and unable to support himself, 
is named with pity, even commendation, by 
his friends. He ought rather to be looked 
upon as an irreligious man, inasmuch as he 
has sinned against God by sinning against 
himself. So, too, the man who, drenched to 
the skin and sitting in a cold wind, pooh- 
poohs his shiverings and gets rheumatic fever; 
or the mother who, disregarding painful feel- 



88 THE COMING RELIGION. 

ings, works too soon after a debilitating illness, 
and establishes disordered health that lasts for 
the rest of her days, and makes her useless to 
herself and others, — one and all such, who* 
sin against the laws of their physical structure, 
should be made to see that such sins ought 
to be classed with moral evil, because they 
hinder the full and perfect development of 
humanity. 1 Not only must one develop to 
fullest perfection his body, but also his mind, 
his thinking faculties, in order that they 
may serve him in their highest degree of use- 
fulness. In a sentence, each must strive to 
be a perfect organism, a right-thinking, right- 
acting, fully developed organism. The rea- 
son why Science places such stress on what 
may be called egoistic conduct is not hard to 
understand. Science looks on humanity, not 
as an outside factor distinct from and only 
partially related to Nature, but as the crown- 
ing development of the world's unfoldment. 
If we desire ripe fruit, her expounders might 
1 Spencer's Data of Ethics. 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 89 

say, we must first have a good tree. Such 
a tree must be well planted and favorably- 
exposed, so that the conditions of soil and 
climate may lead to a strong and healthy 
growth. This once effected, the inner sap, or 
vital principle, has a free opportunity to rise 
and go forth through limb and leaf, finally 
flowering into the ripened fruit. So is it 
with a man. In order that he may ripen into 
the fullest, fairest form of humanity, he must 
first of all have a good body, well and favora- 
bly conditioned as regards Nature's bounties; 
and through and by means of this body his 
mind can work wholesomely, going forth into 
the leaf and bud of action, and finally expand- 
ing into the fruit of unselfish and kindly 
deeds. 

We are now ready for the consideration of 
the second commandment of the religion of 
Science. The first reads : Thou shall develop 
into the highest ', fairest human form now possi- 
ble. The second, which naturally follows, is : 
Help others so to do. We are thus imp era- 



90 THE COMING RELIGION. 

tively warned against supposing that happi- 
ness will be ours by simply leading a right 
and proper life according to the laws of our 
own being, regardless of the welfare of our 
fellow-creatures. Nature does not simply 
expend her wealth of treasure for the benefit 
of the one. While each has an individual 
responsibility, he has at the same time a 
corporate responsibility, as being a part of 
the world's social organism. As a part, then, 
he advances or retrogrades as the whole de- 
velops or fails to develop. Were it other- 
wise, in a w r orld where human lives are so 
intertwined, selfish advancement would prob- 
ably be purchased at the expense of others. 
Two would needs suffer, so that one might 
progress. Soon there would be an unbridged 
chasm between those highly developed and 
the great mass of poor, partially evolved, and 
struggling ones. No, no; for a time a few 
men may so get the power over things as to 
appear to turn Nature's laws to no account, 
to trample upon them, to use them only for 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 91 

self-aggrandizement; but, sooner or later, 
Nature reasserts herself, and when she does, 
woe to the offenders. Revolutions, empha- 
sized by vault-like conciergeries, inflamed 
and fiendish passions, — a reign of terror, — 
teach that no man liveth to himself, but 
that the perfection of all is the duty of 
each. 

Science calls that the ethical insight when 
a man first wakes to this truth, when he 
sees beyond doubt that his life, his happiness, 
his highest moral and spiritual evolution, 
depend not only on his following out the 
laws of his own being, but on his helping 
his neighbor to do the like. Indeed, his 
neighbor is as his own very life, and conse- 
quently he should act as if he himself had 
to suffer the consequences that would flow 
from the wrong acts of either. Terrible is 
this thought when it first comes in all its 
meaning, — that the life of our fellows is 
so bound up with our own as to make escape 
impossible. Look ! says Science, see thy 



92 THE COMING RELIGION. 

neighbor's life as it throbs in anticipation, 
exults in hope, crouches in fear, twinges in 
pain. It is real even as is thy very own. 
Ignorance has hidden this fact from thee, 
darkness has been round about thee ; it can 
hide it from thee no longer, thou hast been 
given the truth, the light has come, and by 
its beatific rays thou hast seen. O won- 
drous vision, that all life is One, God's 
life! 

The law, then, which is called the altruistic 
law, or the law of unselfishness, is as binding 
as any other. To walk aright, and not to fall, 
one must heed the law of gravitation; to 
develop physically and gain strength and 
force, he must obey the laws of diet and 
hygiene ; to develop morally and spiritually, 
he must go out of himself, working and liv- 
ing for others. 

This altruistic law, Science affirms to be 
as old, as primary, as the law of self-preser- 
vation. It is a fundamental necessity of 
growth, a law of unfoldment. Back, far 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 93 

back of human beings, in the lowest forms 
of existence, are the illustrations of this 
truth. Take certain forms of rotifera and 
sponges unconsciously propagating by break- 
ing up into parts, and thus losing the original 
individuality, or giving up portions of self, 
and thus perpetuating species; or pass to 
the more evolved insects, where the parent 
life goes out soon after the birth of offspring. 
Trace the growth of the altruistic feeling on 
through the semi-conscious grade to the full 
conscious condition, and it will be found to 
exhibit itself in the flutter and distress of 
birds when their young are attacked, in the 
cries of animals when their mates are taken 
from them, and in the moan and tears of the 
human mother when a mortal accident has 
befallen her child. 1 Life cannot be complete 
without the exercise of the altruistic feeling. 
It preserves and carries on the race even 
as egoism makes strong the individual ; and 
in proportion as society advances, as it be- 
1 See Spencer's Data of Ethics. 



94 THE COMING RELIGION. 

comes more complex and thus more depen- 
dent one part upon another, — in just that 
proportion does it become more and more 
necessary for the altruistic feeling to expand, 
taking in not only offspring and family and 
relatives, but all those who compose the state. 
When, therefore, Science tells man to give 
scope to this feeling of unselfishness, she 
does not tell him to perform something un- 
natural, nor something which should prove 
difficult, but to exercise one of the most 
primary and normal of functions. 

This sacrifice of self for the good of others 
must always keep in mind the one ideal, — the 
expansion, elevation, and perfection of human- 
ity, When, in a certain case, it is our life 
over against our neighbor's, when to develop 
him means our lack of development, perhaps 
our suffering and death, then this religion we 
are considering steps in with its " Thou shalt 
not." It warns against undue altruism even 
as it did against brutal egoism. To neither 
extreme shall one incline. There are times, 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 95 

however, it says, in this transition period of 
society, when the sacrifice of one life implies 
the helping on, the greatly increased benefit, 
of many. In such cases that is to be consid- 
ered right conduct which gives the impetus, 
the benefit to the many, even though in the 
so doing, to some one, to some few, there 
come unhappiness and death. In judging, 
therefore, of the heroes and martyrs of the 
earth this question should be kept in mind : 
" Did their action, their self-sacrifice, conduce 
to a greater number of life-giving energies ; 
did they help on to the perfection of society 
by their pain and suffering?" If so, then 
their fortitude, their abandonment of all self- 
interest, must be classed as conduct worthy 
of applause, A mother must not carry her 
devotion to her children to that point where 
her own health is ruined ; a father must not 
slave at his business so that he is worn out 
before his time ; a wife must not completely 
sink her own individuality, in order that her 
husband may better enjoy the things of the 



96 THE COMING RELIGION. 

world, — in short, proper regard for others 
must imply due regard for self; for often 
others are helped as much by one's direct 
efforts for self as by his attempts to help 
them regardless of personal considerations. 

We come now to the consideration of the 
third commandment: Thou shalt do all pos- 
sible to i7icrease the scientific insight. This 
brings us to the question of how best the 
scientific insight can be increased. Men 
who are living in the small realm of self, who 
know little and care less for that which is out- 
side their own sensations, how can they be 
touched ; how can they be compelled to see 
that there is a whole wide world beyond that 
of their own petty hopes and strivings, their 
own grasping appetites and passions; how 
can they be made to know that all life is one? 
Not surely by the simple exercise of our own 
egoistic desires, for manifestly that but 
strengthens the feeling of separate person- 
ality; not even by a generous expenditure 
of altruistic feeling, for often this, instead of 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 97 

making less strong the selfish nature of the re- 
cipient, but increases its egoism. Acts which 
at first are received with thankfulness are by 
and by taken for granted, as if they ought to 
be performed, and the selfish man takes favors 
from others as his right, as no more than he is 
entitled to, Thus there comes to be added 
to his original selfishness an arrogant and 
domineering spirit. 

Clearly, then, some other method of action 
is at times necessary toward others than that 
which is purely selfish or unselfish ; and this 
method is suggested by Science under the 
title of " Just Actions." 

When we see a fellow-being taking advan- 
tage of another ; when we see him try to ap- 
propriate the best to himself; when we see 
him coercing those who are weaker, or inter- 
fering with their rights, — when, in short, it is 
apparent to us that the shrewd, the cunning, 
the strong, are in numberless ways trying to 
overreach the simple, the unsuspecting, or 
the inexperienced, then it is our duty to de- 



93 THE COMING RELIGION. 

nounce such injustice, and to do all possible 
to lead or shame those who practise it into a 
less harmful way of acting. Not only this, 
but those who are developing an undue sel- 
fish nature should be awakened to the truth, 
and helped to the possession of the scientific 
insight, even though such awakening gives 
much pain and temporary misery. Undue for- 
wardness in a child is therefore to be corrected, 
even at the expense of its feelings ; for such 
forwardness is likely to grow into a pushing, 
self-centred disposition, which in the end can 
only bring misery and the dislike of his fellows 
on its possessor. So, too, in the young man 
in whom there is overweening vanity, who 
lives in a fool's paradise, believing that he is 
the centre of creation. He should be aroused 
from his illusion and made to see the world 
as it is, to realize his relative proportion to 
the things around him, even though for a time 
he writhe under the torture of the truth. It 
often happens that wrong teaching or inher- 
ited beliefs indispose men to accept things as 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 99 

they are. They are blind to the facts of life. 
Such wrong teaching has cultivated in them a 
strong prejudice, and consequently they are 
incapable of judging impartially. All such 
should be reasoned with, or carefully taught, 
in so far as it can be done, the truth. Grad- 
ually, kindly, they should be led out from 
the darkness of petty passion or inherited 
bias into the light of the actual. Thus par- 
tially, at least, can they be given the scientific 
insight. 

It follows as a corollary from the third com- 
mandment that Each should strive in every 
way possible to remove all hindrances to the 
scientific insight. Barriers between man and 
man, whether of education, race, nationality, 
or religion, are impediments to the truth, — 
make dull this insight. On account of these 
things, men are kept from one another, their 
interests are made to appear diametrically 
opposite; hence they hate and fight each 
other. Barriers increase the sense of separate 



100 THE COMING RELIGION. 

personality, and lessen or destroy the influ- 
ence of the inborn altruistic feeling; all such 
barriers should therefore be done away with. 
He is the truest disciple of the religion of 
Science who works most for such a result. 
Cease from strife, from passion, says Science ; 
be restrained from the worship of such false 
idols as thou in thy ignorance hast so far 
known. I will lead thee to the newer Sinai', 
where " the law which is perfect, converting 
the soul," shall be given thee. As thou look- 
est forth from that high vantage-ground thou 
shalt comprehend as never before this world 
in which thou livest, — comprehend that in all 
the cries of the despairing, in the hearts of 
all right-acting ones, in the wild exultation of 
those who madly dance around the Golden 
Calf of self-will, from the highest to the low- 
est, is this same conscious burning, though 
perhaps misdirected, life which is in thee. 
Behold it fully, and then consecrate thyself 
to the work of helping to lead this life up 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. IOI 

from the desert place of brute self in which 
it has been wandering these thousands of 
years into the promised land of unity and 
light, where, after much scourging and en- 
deavor, it may evolve, angel-like, to know 
the truth indeed even as it is in God. 



THE COMING RELIGION-. 



CHAPTER V. 

TN the preceding chapters the attention of 
the reader has been called to the fact that 
the religion of Science gives to its adherents a 
supreme object of worship, and that this ob- 
ject is capable of exciting passionate devotion, 
leading to renunciation, and at times even to 
complete self-sacrifice ; further, it was shown 
that the Evolutionary Gospel has much to 
say of conduct, speaking most imperatively 
as to what should be done and what left 
undone. 

Naturally, it may be asked, what hope is 
inspired in the heart of the devotee who 
attempts to follow out the precepts enjoined? 
The religion of Jesus, as is known, while it 
does not lead one to expect much here on 
earth, sustains the believer's faith by the 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 1 03 

heavenly vision and the hope that by and by 
he shall go to that celestial home of many 
mansions where there shall be no weeping, 
neither sorrow nor darkness, but where before 
the Father's face all shall know unbounded 
joy and delight. What can Science offer 
comparable to this? What future can she 
suggest worthy to be classed with this im- 
mortal one? 

It must be frankly acknowledged that 
Science says little as to the future, or, more 
correctly speaking, she says little that incites 
men to hope for a definite personal joy and 
glory in a future life, although she has much 
to tell of such joy and glory to our posterity 
here on earth, if her commands are obeyed. 
Great emphasis is placed on the NOW; hence 
the rewards promised, — the primary rewards, 
— are those flowing directly from good con- 
duct and its consequences here. The Evolu- 
tionary Gospel calls man to consider what 
Nature pays back to him if he live in harmony 
with her dictates. Preservation is her first 



104 THE COMING RELIGION. 

promise, as far as his physical wants are con- 
cerned. The grains and fruits are his, the 
power to cross seas, to speed over continents, 
and to live warmly and comfortably if he 
likes. More, by obeying the laws of diet and 
hygiene, by proper exercise, by abstaining 
from wrong or passionate conduct, he can 
attain the promised threescore and ten years, 
and increase them even to fourscore. All 
this is plain, and needs no extended explana- 
tion ; the special question is, Does Nature re- 
ward in other than physical ways? If from 
no fault of mine, but because of the selfish- 
ness and injustice of other men, I am placed 
under unfavorable conditions, will Nature help 
lighten the load, and make those unchange- 
able conditions seem more pleasant and re- 
munerative? In other w r ords, if I cannot be 
quite happy, may I become at least serene 
and contented? 

To this question the apostle of Science 
gives an entirely affirmative answer. Says 
Herbert Spencer, speaking for the Evolution- 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. I OS 

ists : " There is no kind of activity which 
will not become a source of pleasure if long 
continued." This statement he supports by 
numerous illustrations, calling on our own 
experience to substantiate its truth. College 
men, as is well known, have very little more 
taste for one calling in life than another ; cir- 
cumstances, perhaps because their fathers are 
established in certain trades, influence them 
greatly. Often professional studies are taken 
up which at the beginning are positively dis- 
tasteful. A man reads law or medicine with 
no love for it ; but as time goes on he becomes 
enthusiastic, and cannot easily be induced to 
change his vocation. A blacksmith at first 
finds the shaping of a horseshoe difficult and 
tedious work ; but by and by it becomes easy, 
and he takes positive delight in seeing the 
iron assuming form under his hand. The 
roar and rush of railroad life grow so fasci- 
nating to the experienced engineer that even 
after he is old, and has no need to hold the 
lever, he still clings to his position. The ser- 



106 THE COMIXG RELIGION. 

mon, found a task to write, is in future years 
an agreeable duty; the piano-playing that re- 
quires all one's energies during the first year 
can, after practice, be done almost automati- 
cally. The steady performance of duty, says 
Science, makes that duty grow less burden- 
some, until in time the duty even passes into 
a delight, and the work, once done as a neces- 
sity, or because it is required, comes to be 
done for the sake of the very work itself. By 
continual use the fingers are made more skil- 
ful, the muscles harder and firmer, the brain 
more active, the enduring power greater. 

Thus it is, argues this new religion, that 
while Nature does not exactly lessen the load 
a man is compelled to carry, she does what is 
even more helpful, — makes him better able 
to carry it, and, strangely enough, often will- 
ing and anxious to do so. This growing ca- 
pacity to do things easily and correctly as they 
are done repeatedly, comes by operation of 
the law of use and disuse. 

Another way in which Nature helps human- 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 10 J 

ity is through the law of association, — a law 
beneficent alike to the just and the unjust. 
In her kindly way, Nature makes even her 
coarsest, most unlovely spots beautiful to him 
who has to live amid them. Slowly, surely, 
she weaves round him one after another of 
her delicate meshes of memory and associa- 
tion, — gossamer-threads, perhaps, yet so 
countless in number that he is bound to the 
spot, and made to see, as though he were 
under the spell of enchantment, that spot as 
the most delightful, the most desirable, of any 
on the globe. This is the secret of all pa- 
triotism, this is the secret of man's content 
with the old homestead, — the particular place 
in which he has lived for a long time. Pos- 
sibly to a cultured Parisian, fond of the gay 
boulevards and charming theatres, no life ap- 
pears so unendurable as that spent in a small 
American inland town ; yet some of the hap- 
piest people dwell in just such towns. Possibly 
to these American townspeople no life looks 
more hard and barren than that of the moun- 



108 THE COMING RELIGION. 

taineers of Norway ; yet the poor Norwegian 
peasant folk are thankful, and fully believe 
theirs the best home in the world. Byron, 
in the last lines of his " Prisoner of Chillon," 
shows how even a dungeon may come to be 
loved. After many years the captive is given 
liberty. Surely it ought to give him joy. 
11 These heavy walls," says the prisoner, " had 
grown a hermitage to me, and half I felt as 
they were come to tear me from a second 
home. . . So much a long communion tends 
to make us what we are. . . Even I regained 
my freedom with a sigh." If we act aright, 
not only does the law of association and the 
law of use and disuse work for our benefit, 
but also another law, called by Science the 
law of compensation, by which if we are de- 
prived of one thing, through no fault of ours, 
something else is given in its place. The poor 
man does not have all the delicacies of the 
season on his table, but he has that which is 
better, — a good digestion and keen appetite. 
It may be his lot to work hard and continu- 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 1 09 

ously, instead of having leisure to indulge his 
tastes; but he probably obtains therefrom 
sound sleep and a refreshed body, instead of 
sleeplessness and satiety. The humble pleas- 
ures are not dulled by daily repetition. 
Again the poet, with true insight, puts the 
scientific thought aright. Says Emerson, 
letting the squirrel speak to the mountain : 

" If I am not as large as you, 
You are not so small as I, 
And not half so spry. 
All is well and wisely put : 
If I cannot carry forests on my back, 
Neither can you crack a nut." 

Thus we are told that although Nature is 
so exacting in requiring her laws to be obeyed 
to the very letter, yet if one is trying to obey 
them she comes to his rescue, and by the 
force of habit makes obedience easier and 
easier at each new trial. Take anything that 
at first is hard to do, — say being strictly 
honest, chaste, truthful. Every time a man 
resists a temptation in any of these directions, 



IIO THE COMING RELIGION. 

he gains a new strength to resist which makes 
the second and third effort much less difficult 
than the first. His very status as a man is 
exalted by this new faith. Consider, contin- 
ues the prophet of Science, " how through 
countless ages natural selection, seizing on the 
best things, has reproduced the highest orders 
and let perish the lowest, until at last in this 
wonderful evolution of the soul through mat- 
ter, man has arisen to his present supreme 
place." Human actions do indeed count on 
this world-stage. The drama of life cannot 
go on to a triumphant finale unless one and 
all act well and truly the parts assigned. 
No man is a puppet, perhaps of use, perhaps 
of no use in the creative plan. No, every 
man who thinks, helps or hinders the world 
according as he thinks well or ill. " Every 
hard-worked mechanic's wife," affirms the 
preacher of Evolution, " as well as every edu- 
cated woman, transmits, through the law of 
heredity, to her children tendencies which 
shall knit society together or rend it in pieces, 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. Ill 

and the things which one generation labori- 
ously acquires or stores up become the in- 
born faculty of the next." Louis XIV. on 
his royal throne boastfully said, " I am the 
state." Each man now living can make the 
prouder boast, saying, " I am Posterity; " for 
the fate of the future hangs on the way in 
which each lives to-day. Here is indeed a 
glad and solemn opportunity, that each may 
help in the creation of that world in which on- 
coming generations are to live. Carest thou 
for thy children ? Then provide thou for them 
true blessings by a due regard for thyself. De- 
sirest thou to give them health and strength 
and high-flowing spirits, — those treasures 
which moth and rust cannot corrupt, and 
which thieves cannot steal? Then obey the 
laws governing thine own body. Be thyself 
a well-developed human organism; so shalt 
thou transmit all that is good to thine off- 
spring." So speaks Evolution. 

Summing up as to rewards, this new relig- 
ion tells its votaries that if they live as it 



112 THE COMIX G RELIGION, 

dictates, Nature will provide for their physi- 
cal wants, allow them, for their own advantage, 
the use of her great forces, such as steam, 
electricity, dynamite, or what not; make their 
tasks appear lighter and less arduous ; and, if 
they are trying to walk the right path of 
duty, assist them on the way, giving untold 
compensation for things of which they are 
deprived. More, Nature will light up and 
color with beauty even some barren spot of 
earth upon which may be situated their 
humble home, so that it shall seem the best 
in all the world ; and eventually she will make 
them glad and anxious to do work assigned, 
they finding in and through that work their 
greatest happiness. Indeed, like an observant 
earthly parent, Nature is careful to see that 
the least of man's upward struggles is not 
passed by unnoticed ; and such upward strug- 
gles she records indelibly in his very being, 
so that in after life, through increased capac- 
ity, as well as through memory, it is a source 
of pleasure and permanent joy. 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE, 1 13 

Surely, then, this great eternal energy, this 
pulsing, throbbing force, is not simply mighty 
and wise, but, more, is good, kind, and bene- 
ficent, if man will but walk in the paths of 
righteousness. No wonder, then, that the en- 
thusiastic disciple of Science, contemplating 
the ways of his God, cries out, in the ecstasy 
of the old Hebrew Psalmist: " Teach me, O 
Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall 
keep it to the end ; for thy law is holy and 
just and gcod." 

Lastly, we are led to inquire as to the pen- 
alties which this religion holds before those 
who disobey Nature's commands, who walk 
not in the path of righteousness, and fail to 
follow the laws of the Eternal. Has Science 
also its hell? Is there torment for disobe- 
dience? Beyond doubt, yes, far more awful 
than the old penalties. Some modern Dante, 
with power to depict it, will surely come, and 
he will show how to those who do wrong, Re- 
morse comes like a grim, haunting phantom, 
comes suddenly in the silence of the night, 
8 



114 THE COMING RELIGION. 

when sleep is denied, pulling at our heart- 
strings until from very horror we are ready 
to cry aloud, " Begone ! " Comes, too, when 
our enjoyment is at its height, even at the 
banquet, like Banquo's ghost, and makes the 
hand tremble and the lip grow white, and all 
further pleasure to fly from us. This scien- 
tific depictor of hell will show how to the 
transgressors comes the dread figure of Dis- 
ease ; and alone for weary months and years 
they must wrestle with him, his strength over 
against their strength, until by and by, like 
the angel of old with Jacob, he touch them 
in the hip and force them to their knees, con- 
quered, vanquished, with exhausted vitality, 
ever afterwards to go lamed and impotent 
through the world. The coming Milton will 
point to Pain, that black-hooded Inquisitor 
who racks and burns us with fever and chills, 
who twists our knuckles and distorts our 
muscles and makes us shriek, " Mercy, O 
Lord ! my punishment is greater than I can 
bear." Yes, Nature, at times the stern 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. 115 

Nemesis, has her attendants, evil as well as 
good, to do her bidding. More terrible are 
these evil ones than ancient devils, because no 
prayers or tears or repentance can open the 
door of escape after it has once been shut, 
and bring back to the transgressor's heart re- 
lief and peace. This thought of the sure 
effects of wrong-doing, of sin, and of our 
having inevitably to bear its direful conse- 
quences, the Gospel of Evolution stamps on 
memory in a way never to be forgotten. 

There is a certain limit to the power of 
recuperation, we are told. Stretch a rubber 
string : it may be pulled twice its length, and 
when the strain is removed it returns to its 
normal position. Try again, pull still farther : 
there is a snap, and the string, once broken, is 
never the same. Let a man tamper with vice: 
he may stand it for a time, and still possess 
the power of rebound. Let that time be pro- 
longed, and his power of recuperation is gone. 
Nature gives him no more chances. Wrapped 
up in the transgression is the punishment 



Il6 THE COMING RELIGION. 

The two are one ; it is as impossible to 
have the one without the other as it is to 
drink the red wine containing poison and 
not die. 

Will this new religion content the world? 
Will it take the place in human hearts held 
so long by the old? It seems so strict, so 
exacting, so terrible in its power and in its 
punishments, that one almost shrinks back 
even when it offers its rewards and blessings, 
knowing not but that at the next moment 
some luckless step may draw down upon the 
unwitting head the thunderbolts of inevitable 
destruction. 

What does a man want when he looks to a 
religion for support? The scientist, slightly 
changing the words of Royce, says, " Does 
he want such applause as blind crowds give 
men; such flattery as designing people 
shower upon them; such sympathy as even 
the cherished but prejudiced love of one's 
nearest friends pours out for him? Nay, if 
he seeks merely this, is he quite unselfishly 



THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. \\J 

righteous? Can he not get all that, if he 
wants it, wholly apart from religion? And if 
he looks for reward, can he not get that also 
otherwise? Approval for what really de- 
serves approval he needs, — approval from 
one who truly knows him. The evolutionary 
doctrine says that he gets it. Just as deep, 
as rich, as true approval as expresses the full 
worth of his act, — this he has for all eternity 
from the Infinite. " 

Thus the scientist feels that his religion 
shames the weak and selfish, and he glories 
in its very power. He may admit that " upon 
its altars there are as yet no such hot little 
fires as burn upon the altars of the old gods." 
Be it so, he says ; nevertheless, let us, with that 
courageous stoicism which rises to the height 
of truest unselfishness, be able to say when in 
the presence of the Eternal : "We perish, but 
thou endurest. Ours is not thy eternity, but 
in thy eternity we would be remembered, not 
as rebels against the good, but as doers of the 
good ; not as blots on the face of this part of 



11$ THE COMIXG RELIGION. 

thy infinite reality, but as healthy leaves that 
flourished for a time on the branches of the 
eternal tree of life. Let, then, thy will alone 
be supreme; for in thy will we would rest 
content/' 1 

1 See Royce : The Religious Aspects of Philosophy. 



PART III. 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY; 

OR, 

THE GOSPEL OF SOCIALISM. 



PART III. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TT may seem fanciful to apply the term " re- 
ligion " to that system of thought which 
up to this time has been considered purely 
secular. At the start, therefore, it is well to say 
that our definition of the word " socialism" 
does not differ from the commonly accepted 
one, such as is given by Webster ; namely, the 
theory which advocates a more harmonious, 
precise, and orderly arrangement of the social 
relations than that which now prevails. With 
this definition in mind, I think we shall find, 
after careful study, that the modern religion 
of Humanity, which is preaching the Gospel 
of Socialism, meets all the requirements of 
our definition of a religion. Thousands of 
men, scattered over every part of the globe, 



122 THE C03IIXG RELIGION, 

find in this Socialistic system their hope and 
inspiration, and give to it as unswerving a 
loyalty as the devotees of acknowledged 
religions give to their systems. Up to the 
present time little effort has been made by 
those outside its own ranks to understand 
this religion of Humanity. When it has been 
considered in any organized way, negative 
terms have been applied to describe it, such 
as "Atheism," " Infidelity," " Modern Pagan- 
ism," " Anti-Christianity," " Worldliness." 
These terms, however, are no more express- 
ive of the truth than the terms of obloquy 
applied to the religion of Jesus during its 
first years of organization. 

If the Gospel of Evolution is difficult to 
define, much more difficult will it be found to 
voice this Gospel of Socialism ; for as yet its 
prophets and interpreters hold few points in 
common. We know that the definitions of the 
belief of no one Christian sect properly rep- 
resent all Christianity ; yet when the various 
Protestant and Catholic sects are combined 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 23 

and put opposite to Mohammedanism, we 
see a root difference and a general trend in 
them not seen in the latter religion ; so when 
the various Socialistic parties are contrasted 
with some other distinct religious system, we 
detect too a definite trend in them, and a 
general aim acknowledged by all. 

The religion of Humanity, it may be said, 
had its birth during the dark and stormy 
days of the French Revolution. At that 
time there was proclaimed the doctrine of 
equal rights foreshadowed in the American 
Declaration of Independence. The religion 
of Jesus had spoken of equal spiritual rights, 
all men equal before the Heavenly Father, 
one soul as precious as another ; but it had 
said nothing of equal rights to the things of 
this world, — to freedom, to the soil, to the 
natural resources for wealth and improve- 
ment. It had found the Roman heel upon 
society, and when questioned as to whether, 
in the name of justice, revolt against such 
iron despotism is right, had simply answered : 



124 THE COMING RELIGION. 

44 Render unto Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's." It had found human slavery in 
existence, and raised no voice against it. In 
no way did it try to change directly the 
existing order. 

The reason for this was brought out in our 
examination of Jesus' teachings. He would 
work from within. By changing men's dis- 
positions they of their own accord would 
change outward conditions. Like good seed 
planted, which brings forth good fruit, so 
must the truth be planted ; like the mustard- 
seed, seemingly of little worth, which when 
grown becomes the greatest of all herbs, so 
the kingdom of Heaven, coming first silently 
in a man's heart, will become the greatest 
of all forces. Nature's way, the method of 
growth, of development from within outward, 
is the method adopted by Jesus. For eigh- 
teen hundred years a system had existed 
which purported to be the religion of Jesus ; 
yet men saw throughout the world lust and 
avarice and scramble for the good things of 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 12 5 

life. Bishop and churchman were as anxious 
for temporal as for spiritual power. The 
head of the Roman Catholic Church had 
made himself the ruler of lands and peoples in 
Italy. The chief ecclesiastics of the Church 
of England lived in as fine style and made 
as great a display as the lords of the realm. 
In shrewdness and cunning, in desire to 
obtain lands and privileges from the king, it 
was difficult to distinguish between a dignitary 
of the Church and an officer of the Crown. 
What wonder, then, if the common people, 
judging by the fruits of the system, pro- 
nounced Christianity a failure? What won- 
der that we have the terrible excesses leading 
to the trampling down of Christian symbols 
and the elevation in Paris of the Goddess of 
Reason? 

Nature works not only slowly and silently, 
but also by cataclysms and breaks. The 
earthquake shock, the summer tempest, the 
storm of wind and sea, are as natural as 



126 THE COMING RELIGION. 

the quiet day or the gentle passing of one 
season into another. Although seemingly law- 
less, the outbreaks of Nature are as thoroughly 
under the domain of law as the processes of 
vegetable growth that can be traced from 
stalk to stem. It is simply because the 
causes which prepare these mighty upheavals 
are less well known and often unseen that 
they are ignorantly spoken of as caprices, as 
not necessary parts of the divine order. The 
outbursts of the French Revolution, the de- 
thronement of Christianity, the teachings of 
the English and French " atheists," as they 
were called, although the necessary effect of 
certain lava-like undercurrents, all came upon 
the civilized world as a cataclysm. To many 
a good man at the close of the last century 
it must have seemed as if chaos were re- 
turning, and Antichrist with all his legion of 
devils about to take possession of mankind. 
To us, looking back a hundred years, that 
mighty paroxysm, that upheaval and disturb- 
ance and pain, is seen to have been but the 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. \2J 

birth-throes of a new system of thought, a 
system which affirms no separation between 
sacred and profane, between religious and 
secular, but makes right living, as it interprets 
it, religious living, and believes that the ideal 
kingdom of God is the co-operative inter- 
national commonwealth. 

This system of thought, then, let us try to 
understand. In studying it, we do so not as 
one on the outside, but as one who is in sym- 
pathy with its fundamental statements. 

Our first question to answer is, What is the 
supreme object of worship which Socialism 
gives? What does it uphold before men's 
minds as the one most exalted thing for 
which, if needs be, even life should be will- 
ingly sacrificed ? Nothing else, or perhaps, 
more truly speaking, nothing less, than Hu- 
manity, — that is, the grand concrete aggre- 
gation of the human race. Humanity is the 
sole supreme object of worship and service. 
By Humanity is meant, so we are told, the 
whole of human beings, past, present, future, 



123 THE COMING RELIGION. 

idealized as the Immortal Individual, the 
Great Being, the Supreme Being. " All 
human societies and individuals are to be 
regarded as the organs of this Great Being, 
having their work and duties determined by 
their relations to it, and finding their welfare, 
life-motive, and even immortality in their 
cheerful and faithful service." 1 

Having now well in mind the object of 
worship, the next question following out our 
definition of a religion is, Does this object 
of worship excite passionate devotion, lead- 
ing even to self-sacrifice ? As we ask the 



1 " Man," says Feuerbach, " has no other god before 
man. Man alone is our god, our father, our judge, our 
redeemer, our law and rule, the Alpha and Omega of our 
political, moral, public, and domestic life and work. There 
is no salvation but by man ; hence, as there is no person 
above man, no person who in being or right is more than 
a man, so there is no person who is less. There must be 
no slaves, no heretics, no outcasts, no outlaws, but every 
being who wears human flesh must be placed in the enjoy- 
ment of the full rights and privileges of man. The will of 
man be done, hallowed be his name.' 5 — Rae : Contempo- 
rary Socialism , pp. 115, 1 16. 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 129 

question there comes to mind that second 
children's crusade which the Empire of Rus- 
sia so lately knew. A children's crusade 
I call it because the young men and maidens 
who went forth from the cities to preach to 
the peasantry the new Gospel of Socialism 
were little more than children. Analyze 
that second stage of Nihilism, the period of 
propaganda, and you find it as unselfish, as 
enthusiastic, as fully dominated by lofty re- 
ligious zeal, as fully consecrated in its efforts 
to reclaim the lost, as any period in mediaeval 
days. 

I know of nothing more noble and yet 
more pathetic than the picture of those 
university students and well-born sons and 
daughters forsaking comfortable homes and 
going forth to live with poor, dull, unlettered 
peasants, to work with them at the hardest 
and most menial employments, in order that 
when night carne they could gather these 
same mujicks into some dirty, ill-smelling 
thatched cottage, and by the light of a dim, 
9 



130 THE COMING RELIGION. 

smoking candle read and expound to them 
the new Gospel of Socialism, the Gospel 
which brought good tidings to the afflicted. 
" I am sent," said each propagandist, " in the 
name of Humanity, to bind up the broken- 
hearted, to comfort all that mourn, to tell 
them of our common human interests and 
interdependence, and thus to give beauty for 
ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit 
of heaviness." Alas, and yet alas ! As the 
crusading children were swept away by the 
thousand in those thirteenth-century days, 
so these young people, who were called athe- 
ists, disbelievers in the Orthodox Greek 
Church, enemies of the administrative sys- 
tem, were swept into the dungeons and pri- 
sons of Siberia, or crushed out in unknown 
ways. No one knows their history, no one 
dares fully to inquire into it. The suffering 
and cruelty and bloodshed which followed on 
that noble attempt to enlighten the Russian 
masses and lift them up from the beast-like 
state may well be compared to the suffering 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 131 

and bloodshed which followed on the first 
attempts of the Christians to preach and 
practise their religion in opposition to the 
injunction of the Roman government. The 
arena has its modern counterpart; the Alex- 
andrian persecution of 1873 -1878 may be 
ranked with that of Nero or Diocletian. 

Recall, too, the bravery and endurance of 
many of the English Socialists during the 
great London dock strikes, and see the same 
spirit displayed in the numerous books and 
pamphlets of the humble men who call them- 
selves Socialists. While reading their books, 
I have felt the lofty spirit of unselfishness 
which breathes through them. It is indeed 
like the first grand utterances of a new reli- 
gion. These quotations will show this modern 
enthusiasm which is now struggling for 
utterance : — 

" A man who has once become a Socialist knows 
but one more object in life, — to devote himself to the 
noble work of liberating the laboring people. And 
then comes the second part of his duty, — to show to 



132 THE COMING RELIGION. 

those whom he has converted by what the old system 
is to be replaced. This is the new enthusiasm of 
humanity" 

Again take these words : — 

" Blessed is even now our privilege. We have our 
choice, to live as individualists, and on our death-bed 
look back in despair on a dreary, hateful life of play- 
acting, or, as Socialists, fill our existences with those 
serious moods that make the grand tone of life, and 
in the hour of death stand on the mountain-top, as it 
were, and see with entranced eyes the rays of the sun 
that soon will illuminate the dark valleys below. I 
deem it worth ten crucifixions to win for my memory 
(as a Socialist) a fraction of the adoring love which 
millions of the noblest men have felt for Christ." 1 

Examine that mad, passionate, unreasoning 
protest against existing order, against the 
grinding power of authority and established 
usage, which Louise Michel and some of her 
compatriots exhibited in the last stormy days 
of the Napoleonic Empire in 1871. Is it not 
similar in many respects to the protest made 
by certain extreme ones among the early 
Christians? With them as with these modern 

1 Gronlund. 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. I 33 

reformers there is noticeable a sworn enmity 
to the institutions and religion of the times. 
The Christian enthusiast of old refused to 
take the oath of allegiance prescribed by 
Rome, and when told to burn incense before 
the image of the emperor, he drew back, pre- 
ferring exile or death to what he considered 
disloyalty to his Nazarene Master. Even so 
with these Humanitarians. For their Gospel's 
sake, for what they believe right and true, 
they are willing to sacrifice wealth, liberty, 
even life, counting no labor heavy, no pain 
great, no penalty severe, if by such labor and 
pain and punishment their beloved cause can 
be advanced. 

These believers in the religion of Human- 
ity are not simply in the lowest walks of life. 
In England and in America, as well as in 
Russia, they are to be found among the high- 
est and most cultured of society. The enthu- 
siasm which flamed forth in that exquisite 
verse of George Eliot, — 

" Oh, may I join the choir invisible," 



134 THE COMING RELIGION. 

is akin to that found in the violent writings 
of Louise Michel. At first the link of con- 
nection may not be apparent; but on closer 
observation it will be seen that the impetus, 
the motive force, which animated the English- 
woman is indentical with the spirit which 
urged on to violence her French sister. 
George Eliot in the world of conventionality is 
clearly as much of a rebel as is Louise Michel 
in the political world. Both have outgrown 
the Christian faith, and with it the ordinary 
fears of ecclesiastical anathema and society's 
judgment upon their actions. Instead of 
giving up " the faith " for no faith (the accu- 
sation commonly made), they would reply 
that they had but exchanged an old, an out- 
worn belief for a new and more inspiring 
one, and should therefore be judged by its 
standards, instead of the customary ones of 
right and wrong. Where in the history of 
religion do we find a gospel provoking lof- 
tier aspiration, coupled with saintlier humil- 
ity, than in the prayer — for prayer it surely 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 35 

is — of George Eliot's, closing with the 
words, — 

"May I be to other souls 
The cup of strength in some great agony ; 
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, 
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, 
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, 
And in diffusion ever more intense. 
So shall I join the choir invisible 
Whose music is the gladness of the world." 

It is noticeable in the first years of all new 
faiths that enthusiastic adherents, not content 
with simply promulgating their gospel, wish 
immediately to organize society into the forms 
set forth by their religion as the perfect ones. 
When Christianity was young, ideal commu- 
nities were created within the Roman state 
in which the principles of the Nazarene rabbi 
could be put into practice, and his words be 
made the law of life. To these points there 
flocked the most intense and loyal Christians, 
and within a limited area, at least, they made 
real the plan of a universal commonwealth, — 



136 THE COM TNG RELIGION. 

the Republic of God. Again, in the seven- 
teenth century, during the renaissance of 
Christianity, such experimental attempts are 
once more made, and on the American shore 
of the Atlantic a Puritan theocracy estab- 
lished which aimed to be a model of the 
Biblical kingdom of Jehovah. 

Judged by this standard the Socialists are 
not a whit behind the followers of other relig- 
ions. In many places they too have with- 
drawn from the recognized organizations of 
the state and attempted to set up communi- 
ties which should illustrate their thought of 
what society ought to be. Very sincere and 
very pathetic have been some of these at- 
tempts to establish the Ideal Co-operative 
Commonwealth. For Humanity's sake, home 
and friends, as well as riches and honors, have 
been given up, and the new convert, forsaking 
all that was formerly dear to him, has gone 
forth, like Abraham of old, called by faith, to 
an unknown country, not knowing whither 
he went. Contempt and ridicule, those sure 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 137 

accompaniments of all unique movements, 
have been endured, often silently and without 
complaint, in order to further the interests of 
some Utopian project. Lack of success in 
France, in California, in England, or in New 
York has no more disheartened the faithful 
than corresponding failures did the early- 
Christians of Asia Minor or North Africa, the 
belief being firmly fixed that a failure to-day 
makes only the more sure a success to- 
morrow. 

On the intellectual rather than on the prac- 
tical and economic side of this modern relig- 
ion, take the following extract from the 
speech of William Henry Channing delivered 
before the National Convention of Associa- 
tionists in 1844. It shows how, on the 
border-line of Humanitarianism, one just 
stepping forth from the conventional forms 
and usages of Christianity felt the new glow, 
the new hope and enthusiasm, which since 
then has been felt by hundreds of sincere but 
obscure men. The closing words echo the 



138 THE COMING RELIGION. 

supplication of every true and honest Socialist 
whose heart's desire is the helping forward of 
his brother man : — 

" Those of us who are active in this movement will 
meet with suspicion and abuse. It is well, well that 
critical eyes should probe our plans to the core, and if 
they are evil, lay bare their hidden poison; well that 
in this fiery ordeal the sap of our personal vanities and 
weaknesses should be consumed. We need be anxious 
but on one account, and that is lest we be unworthy of 
this sublime reform. Who are we that we should 
have the honor of giving our lives to this grandest 
of all possible human endeavors, the establishment of 
universal unity, of the reign of heaven on earth? 
Truly 'out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has 
the Lord ordained strength.' Kings and holy men 
have desired to see the things we see, and have not 
been able. Let our desire be that our i?nperfeclions, 
our unfaithfulness, do not hinder the progress of love 
and truth and joy?'' 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 39 



CHAPTER VII. 

\ T THEN we come to inquire of the relig- 
* * ion of Humanity what it requires of 
its adherents, — that is, what they should do 
and what leave undone, — we find, as in the 
case of the other religions, certain duties each 
man owes his fellows, and certain obligations 
imposed upon himself. These duties and 
obligations often seem entirely opposed to 
those fundamental ones of the other two sys- 
tems, and therefore they must be considered 
at some length. 

How shall society be elevated; how shall 
men and women be made happier and 
better? This is the ethical question at the 
root of each religion. 

Men and women must first be made better 
animals, we are told by Science ; they must 



140 THE COMING RELIGION 

first have good bodies and sound brains be- 
fore they are of much value to the world. 
The thing of primary importance is to teach 
them how more harmonious unfoldment can 
be brought about. If necessary, even pain 
must not be withheld to awaken them out of 
ignorance and sloth, and set them to work 
out energetically their own salvation. The 
religion of Jesus, in a less harsh and cruel 
way, also begins with the individual. It says 
to each disciple, " Go thou and redeem the 
outcast and depraved, lead them gently 
through the power of love, and if occasion 
require, sacrifice even thine own life to save 
others from pain and misery and anguish of 
soul." In a word, Science begins with educa- 
tion ; Christianity with a self-sacrificing love. 
Socialism would start with environment. 
" Change conditions and surroundings," it 
says, " and in the so doing elevate men." 
This changing of conditions can be put under 
three divisions. The elevation of men can be 
brought about by — 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 141 

1. Harmonization; 2. Purification; 3 Rec- 
onciliation. 

1. The harmonization of society's institu- 
tions so that their embodied purpose and 
order are in unison with the laws of right. 
Watchword, " Order the first law of Heaven. " 

2. The purification of habitations and 
surroundings until they are in unison with 
the laws of health. Watchword, " Cleanliness 
is next to godliness." 

3. The reconciliation of human interests, 
competition replaced by co-operation, and 
men's welfare identical instead of inimical, so 
that they may act in unison with the laws of 
peace. Watchword, " Each for the good of all." 

I. Society's institutions to-day, says the 
Humanitarian, do not really embody the ideas 
for which they stand. All of them are far 
removed from the ideal standards. Take, 
for illustration, the institution of law. Here 
is a court-house. Above it is placed the 
figure of Justice. Let us see how nearly this 
emblem stands for a reality. 



142 THE COMING RELIGION. 

We will suppose, continues our Socialist, 
that a well-known corporation, such as an 
elevated railroad or a sugar refining com- 
pany, employs a large number of workmen. 
These laborers are under contract to give 
their time, strength, and skill for a fixed sum ; 
the corporation on its side promises to pay an 
agreed-upon amount for the work done. By 
and by the various elevated railways consoli- 
date into a single one, or the sugar companies 
combine as a trust. Fewer men are needed. 
Possibly without warning, a couple of hundred 
hands are thrown out of employment, and at 
a time, too, when such labor as they are cap- 
able of doing has little market value. Much 
suffering is brought about, — suffering not 
limited to the employees, but extending to 
their wives and children, and even to aged 
parents depending upon their sons for sup- 
port. Trace out one such case, says the 
Socialist, and see how wide, how far reaching, 
is the result of the power vested in a corpora- 
tion to discharge or employ men at its will. 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 43 

Take, for example, the welfare of L and C. 
C is a capitalist, and has his money in- 
vested in a manufacturing company. L is 
a laborer engaged in working for that com- 
pany. It has been found, owing to outside 
competition, that unless expenses are reduced 
the company cannot profitably dispose of its 
product in the home market; therefore, in 
order to protect capital, the said business or- 
ganization combines with half a dozen others 
of the same sort into a gigantic trust. By 
so doing, much labor can be saved, and thus 
expenses cut down. The trust consequently 
feels that it has a legitimate right to discharge 
the now needless employees, and L, along 
with others, suddenly finds himself without 
work. By this economy, made possible un- 
der the new conditions, the trust holds its 
own and makes as large a percentage of 
profit as was possible before the foreign 
company initiated the competitive struggle. 
In this case C is protected, and L is 
not. " But," says the upholder of such a 



14-1- THE COMING RELIGION. 

course to the Socialist, " would you have it 
different? If L and the others are kept 
employed in spite of the strong outside com- 
petition, it manifestly follows that all profit 
is cut off, and C has taken from him his 
means of support ; therefore in self-defence 
C must first look to his own interest." 

Thus Capital under existing conditions has 
the right, and is upheld in that right by law 
courts, to protect itself fully, no matter what 
inconvenience and hardships are brought 
to the laboring man. L, on his part, can 
appeal in vain to the law courts for protec- 
tion. Is not his capital (his skill and muscle) 
as sacred as that owned by C? Should it 
not therefore be kept employed, or in some 
manner guaranteed an income until new em- 
ployment is found? As it is now, all the loss 
falls on L, and thus property is made 
more sacred than person. The Socialist 
therefore reasons that an institution which 
pretends to stand for justice, and yet always 
leans to the protection of money over against 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 145 

flesh and blood, needs to be changed so that 
it may be brought more truly into unison 
with the ideal law of right. 

There are many open and flagrant abuses of 
the institution of law which Socialism decries, 
such as the granting in cities of valuable fran- 
chises for slight compensation ; the preserving 
in the name of justice certain unequal rights 
to land ; the protection of the aristocracy in 
certain hereditaments; the perpetuity of es- 
tates ; the laws of inheritance, — in short, all 
that kind of legislation which favors one class 
as against another. Very bitter and em- 
phatic is its denunciation of certain existing 
social and religious institutions, particularly 
in Russia, where the Church, which calls it- 
self Christian, is so far away from the religion 
promulgated by Jesus. u Here is an institu- 
tion, " argues the Humanitarian, " that pre- 
tends to believe in the statement, * Resist not 
evil,' ' Love one another/ and yet its priests 
in one country pray for divine guidance and 
victory to the national army as it goes forth 



I46 THE COMING RELIGION. 

for the avowed purpose of killing and mur- 
dering the best life of the adjacent nation." 

The Socialist here joins hands with the 
scientist in showing how great is the diver- 
gence between the present theory and the 
facts, quoting with approval the words of one 
such, Herbert Spencer: — 

" From the ten thousand priests of the religion of 
love who are silent when the nation is moved by the 
religion of hate will come no sign of assent [to juster 
principles], nor from their bishops, who, far, from urg- 
ing the extreme precepts of the Master they pretend to 
follow, — to turn the other cheek when the one is smit- 
ten, — vote on the principle, Strike, lest ye be struck. 
Nor will any approval be felt by legislators who, after 
praying to be forgiven their trespasses as they forgive 
the trespasses of others, forthwith decide to attack 
those who have not trespassed against them, and who, 
after a Queen's Speech has invoked the blessing of 
Almighty God on their councils, immediately provide 
means for committing political burglary." 

Society's institutions, thus tested by the 
standard of the Socialist, are in discord with 
the laws of right; consequently, every be- 
liever in the religion of Humanity must 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 147 

agitate and work until a more harmonious 
adjustment of means to ends is effected. 

2. The purification of habitations and sur- 
roundings is the next task to which the So- 
cialist would set himself. Of what use the 
command to visit the sick and those that are 
in affliction, he says, as long as the present 
imperfect sanitation continues in the homes 
of half the human race ? Failure and poverty- 
are largely due to the fact that many men 
and women are of inferior development, 
have weak brains and slight energy. This 
inferior development, in its turn, is due to 
early disease, brought about by bad air, 
unwholesome living and sleeping rooms, and 
impure water. The causes of disease must 
therefore be removed. By looking back on 
the condition of the toiling masses even so late 
as a hundred years ago, it is plain to be seen 
why so many of those now living are cursed 
with weak wills, poor eyesight, consumptive or 
scrofulitic tendencies, inducing crippled forms, 
and are dominated with passionate desires 



I48 THE COMING RELIGION. 

leading to physical excesses and even worse 
evils. The improvement in the condition of 
the masses within the past century is much 
more attributable to the improvement in their 
homes and their surroundings than to any 
influence brought to bear upon them by the 
so-called Christian religion. That, then, is 
the truest religious conduct which strives to 
bring about cleaner homes, better sewerage, 
and better factory regulations ; which compels 
a municipality to light and pave as well the 
meaner portion of the city as the more ele- 
gant, and does not rest content until the 
water-supply for the poor is as pure and as 
abundant as for the rich, — in short, that goes 
out in every effort for a better, more uplift- 
ing method of living. 

Nothing exasperates the Socialist so much 
as that kind of quietism and contentment with 
surroundings which is induced by a fervent 
belief in orthodox Christianity. "The Lord 
giveth, and the Lord hath taken away," humbly 
whispers the ignorant but devout peasant as 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 49 

he bends his head in sorrow over the coffin 
of his dear child. The truth is, the Lord has 
nothing to do with it. If the child had been 
given plenty of sunshine and healthy sur- 
roundings, argues the Humanitarian, it would 
still be living. The Christian system, as too 
often taught, is pernicious, inasmuch as it 
tries to instill contentment instead of dissatis- 
faction with present conditions. " Thy light 
affliction which is but for a moment worketh 
for thee a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory;" " I reckon that the suffer- 
ings of the present time are not worthy to 
be compared with the glory which shall be 
revealed to us." With such texts does the 
orthodox priest or the evangelical pastor 
beguile his hearers and stifle the best efforts 
of men and women on earth. Grovel in the 
mud, be broken and empty vessels, be pa- 
tient under suffering and sickness, that thus 
" patience may have her perfect work." As 
long as such teaching is heard, men will do 
little for themselves ; therefore all those who 



150 THE COMING RELIGION. 

truly have at heart the best interests of man- 
kind are called upon by Socialism to unite 
and overthrow the accepted false and theo- 
retical religious system for a truer and more 
energizing one. 

3. Lastly, the present industrial system 
needs to be altered. This system of compe- 
tition and anarchy, where each man's hand is 
raised against his brother, and where success 
can come to one only by the failure of an- 
other, must be changed for a co-operative 
and Socialistic state co-extensive with the 
world. 

To the ordinary man living in and accus- 
tomed to the present industrial system the 
change which this religion of Humanity would 
bring about seems little short of chimerical ; 
and yet on more mature consideration it is 
seen to be not more so than the change which 
Jesus tried to effect in the establishment of 
the kingdom of God. To state it in a sen- 
tence : " Socialism would transform private 
and competing capitals into a united collec- 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 151 

tive capital. " This being done, industrial 
slavery would give way to industrial liberty, 
class distinctions would die out before human 
equality, and the bitter business enmities and 
struggles would be replaced by mercantile 
fraternalism. " Liberty, Equality, Frater- 
nity," are therefore the three words inscribed 
on the red banner of Socialism, — symbol of 
the fact that when the religion of Humanity 
shall prevail, men will be drawn together by 
the consanguinity of the human race. 

When we ask of this new religion how it 
would bring about this much-desired liberty, 
equality, and fraternity, we find the greatest 
divergence in the answers given. With many 
the first step toward liberty in the Russian 
empire is the blotting out of the present ad- 
ministrative system, — if possible, by peace ; if 
necessary, by dynamite and assassination. On 
the ruins of the present political and religious 
organization a new one more worthy of men 
and women can be built up ; hence, says the 
Nihilist, the destroyer must come before the 



152 THE COMING RELIGION. 

builder. Only by tearing down can there be 
building up. To revolution, then, the Nihil- 
istic faction of Socialism mainly looks, hop- 
ing that at some time in the near future it 
may triumphantly sing over Tzarism and 
orthodoxy the song of Moses, slightly al- 
tered : " The Autocrats said, I will divide the 
spoil ; my lust shall be satisfied upon them. 
I will draw my sword ; my Siberian dungeons 
shall devour them. But thou, O Revolution ! 
didst blow upon them with the wind of lib- 
erty: a sea of blood covered them; they 
sank as lead in the mighty waters ! " 

In America there are also some such So- 
cialists, who declare, in the words of Jesus, 
that they come, not to bring peace, but a 
sword. " Truth," a paper formerly published 
in San Francisco, printed the following: 
" Truth is five cents a copy, and dynamite 
forty cents a pound. War to the palace ! 
peace to the cottage!" Said the " Torch," 
a German paper published a few years ago in 
Chicago : " When the sense of justice in the 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 53 

people once awakes, may Judge Lynch hold 
court in every place ; for nowhere is there a 
lack of unhanged honorables." These vio- 
lent declarations and methods, it must be said, 
do not represent all Russian or other Social- 
ists ; they certainly represent but a small 
minority of those who give allegiance to 
Socialism in Great Britain, Australia, and 
America. In these latter countries, particu- 
larly in the United States, the Socialist would 
bring in by quiet and peaceful methods the 
industrial liberty for which he longs. 

As to ways and means, opinions change so 
rapidly that it is hazardous to try to photo- 
graph them ; consequently let us put together 
the statements of certain well-known Socialists 
for our description of the way industrial 
liberty will be ushered in. We shall thus 
have a general statement, which, if not abso- 
lutely accurate, is at least inclusive. 

First, there must be an abolition of the 
present competitive system and of individual 
ownership of the instruments of production. 



154 THE COMING RELIGION, 

The state (that is, the people collectively) 
shall be the owner of the means of production 
and transportation. Machinery shall do the 
world's work, and the whole people shall 
own such machinery and reap the full bene- 
fits thereof; not, as at present, when machines 
are owned by wealthy individuals and cor- 
porations, and operated to the degradation 
of the human beings who attend them. Ex- 
tremes of poverty and wealth in the hands 
of individuals cannot exist. The people in 
their collective capacity will own and control 
all the surplus wealth of the community. 
There being no very rich or very poor, there 
will be no failures or bankruptcies; there 
being no private capital, everybody will be 
enlisted in the service of the state; and an 
average of two hours' labor each day on the 
part of all will produce a social competence 
sufficient for all. No man will be a wage- 
worker, and thei'efore no man will be an in- 
dustrial slave, as now. Each worker, whether 
foreman, clerk, teacher, physician, laborer, 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 155 

or editor, will be an honored helper of the 
whole people, — "a public official, whose 
function will be directed and his compensa- 
tion fixed by the commonwealth. " 

This change brought about in the indus- 
trial world, it follows as a necessary conse- 
quence that men as they approach nearer 
each other in the equality of their possessions, 
or rather lack of private possessions, will 
approach more nearly in their feelings. The 
Industrial Co-operative State will teach each 
man respect for his fellows by teaching re- 
spect for the trade or calling in which each 
is engaged. Not, as now, will one kind of 
work be looked upon as demeaning, and 
another as ennobling. Society — that is, 
the whole body of people — will frown upon 
those false distinctions which in these days are 
made between the trades and the professions. 
It will be just as honorable to be a hod-carrier 
or the fireman of an engine as a teacher or 
physician. Each man will be respected for 
his worth ; for all titles and hereditary power 



156 THE COMING RELIGION. 

will be abolished. When this great Inter- 
national Commonwealth exists, a man will 
stand or fall on his own worth. Yes, earn- 
estly exclaims the Socialist, — 

" Let us pray that come it may, 
As come it will for a' that, 
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 
May bear the gree and a' that. 

It's coming yet, for a' that, 
That man to man the world o'er 
Shall brithers be for a' that," 

Liberty and equality once established, 
fraternity as a matter of course follows. 
King-craft and priest-craft are now keeping 
communities apart, for the benefit of those 
who rule. " Patriotism " is a word for gen- 
erals to conjure by, manufactured by kings 
and princes to keep their people from being 
disloyal and entering into friendly relations 
with people of other kingdoms. Christian 
denominationalism is even a worse barrier; 
it separates believer from unbeliever, Protes- 
tant from Catholic, Evangelical Protestant 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 57 

from liberal Christian. It is of value only 
to those who wish to perpetuate the old 
slavery, who have the direction of large 
ecclesiastical interests, Christianity as taught 
results in provincial feeling and petty ani- 
mosities; the obliterating of it, and with it 
of religious lines, as also the doing away with 
the present industrial system, will naturally 
bring the masses of each nation into fraternal 
relations with one another. It will then be 
seen that their interests are identical, and not 
opposed and inimical, as is now supposed. 
The feeling of humanity deep down in every 
breast, being allowed a chance to grow, will 
ripen into that family feeling which shall 
make men clasp hands the world around, 
acknowledging their solidarity. 



J 58 THE COMING RELIGION. 



I 



CHAPTER VIII. 

N the preceding pages we have sketched 
that line of conduct which the religion of 
Humanity calls right conduct. As we read 
the works of La Salle and Comte and Carl 
Marx and other such leaders and priests, we 
find that there is a duty which each man 
owes to himself. He must try not simply 
to bring in the reign of fraternity and all 
that goes with it, by subordinating self to 
the state, but at the same time he must try 
to elevate himself in the scale of being. His 
ideal must be to become a perfect part of 
the collective whole. Therefore, just as the 
religion of Jesus calls upon each of its ad- 
herents to grow in holiness, so the religion 
of Humanity commands each of its followers 
to grow in honor. By " honor " is meant, as 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 1 59 

Everett has well defined it, " that self-asser- 
tion which comes from a man's consciousness 
that he is not a merely abstract being stand- 
ing in and for himself. In the fibres of his 
life, he feels, are intertwined the fibres of 
other lives ; so that in affirming himself he 
affirms these larger relations. It is the sense 
of honor which forbids him to stoop to any- 
thing selfish, petty, or mean," This fine 
sense of honor will lead the Socialist to 
resent wrongs done to others as though they 
were done to himself; it will lead him to 
defend the rights of each in the name of 
universal justice. 

There is seen all the way through those 
actions that are prompted by honor a sense 
— yes, more, an upholding, — of the dignity 
of humanity. Holiness is a self-surrender; 
honor is a self-assertion. To the question, 
What must I do ? Christianity says, Save 
thyself through a holy life ; and to the further 
question, How shall others be best elevated? 
replies, Through love even to the point of 



l6o THE COMING RELIGION. 

self-sacrifice. When these same questions are 
put to the religion of Science, the imperative 
command comes back, Unfold ! develop ! first 
through egoism, and then through a proper 
balancing of altruism and egoism. Others 
can best be helped by means of a qualified 
altruism combined with justice, and at times 
by temporary physical or mental pain. The 
religion of Humanity differs from the other 
two by declaring that each man must first of 
all become perfectly honorable, and help on 
the future progress of society by subordinat- 
ing himself as an individual to the collective 
state. " Salvation," " Unfoldment," " Service," 
may stand as symbol-words for the three 
systems. 

Lastly, we come to inquire of this religion 
of Humanity what gospel it has to bring 
which shall cultivate a glad hope as to the 
future. Like the religion of Science, it says 
little of a future world. It would create its 
heaven here on earth. It builds up in imagi- 
nation a glorious Jerusalem, over the gates 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. i6l 

of which are inscribed, " Come unto me all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." In that fair Socialistic city 
there are no kings and emperors, no indus- 
trial task-masters to compel the people to 
make bricks without straw. There all is 
peace and plenty, for there all are equally re- 
spected and have equal opportunities. From 
afar this glorious city shines out to the weary 
sojourner in the present chaotic world. All 
who will swear allegiance to it and become 
enrolled among its citizens shall find its yoke 
easy and its burden light. Life within its 
walls is not one long dull routine of toil, but 
varied and ennobled by good cheer and 
pleasure. Public parks, public baths and 
fountains, public theatres and places of 
amusement, as well as the many art galleries, 
schools, and museums, are on a scale of un- 
imaginable magnificence. Truly, the happy 
participant in all that such a co-operative 
state can give is to be envied as one of the 
gods. 



1 62 THE COMING RELIGION. 

No wonder — when the thought of this 
perfectly equipped commonwealth is in the 
Humanitarian's mind — that he is filled with 
enthusiasm, and bursts forth in the glad lan- 
guage of the Hebrew psalmist: "Our feet 
shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. 
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall 
prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy 
walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For 
my brethren and companions' sakes, I will 
now say, Peace be within thee," 

A fear, a terrible fear, is instilled into the 
hearts and minds of fervent Socialists by the 
fact that their religion tells them that unless 
they manfully strive for this ideal state, things 
will grow worse and worse. " The rich will 
become richer, and the poor poorer." The 
means of production will all fall into the 
hands of the few ; industrial slavery will be 
a universal fact, where now it is still con- 
fined to those most unfortunately placed. 
Merchant princes, coal barons, railroad 
kings, will rule autocratically. The hope- 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 1 63 

less cry will then go up from thousands of 
toilers, — 

" Work, work, work, 

From weary chime to chime ; 
Work, work, work, 
As prisoners work for crime." 

Free contract between employer and em- 
ployee will be a delusion, for the slave will 
be driven by hunger and by the cries of his 
children to sell his labor for what the master 
will consent to give. " Widows, unable to 
earn enough to keep the wolf from the 
pinched frames of their children will offer 
their own bodies to procurers for vice, or, 
when at death's door, to purveyors for the 
medical student's dissecting-room. Idlers 
there will be, and a pauper class and crimi- 
nals in abundance. " The weary feet of the 
father shall tramp, tramp in vain for better 
conditions, while in a noisome tenement his 
infants moan and the weary mother weeps. 
Young womanhood will be robbed of its 
grace, young manhood of its independence, 



1 64 THE COMING RELIGION. 

and childhood of its joy and innocence, — the 
suicide's grave being the tragic end of numer- 
ous half crazed and desponding human 
beings. 

It is a bold and grand dream this of Social- 
ism, and destined to play an important part 
in the development of man's moral nature. 
The word " humanity " acquires a more mov- 
ing religious power as interpreted by the 
Socialist. To him the service he owes to his 
ideal state is no slavery, but a joy. As he 
looks forward to it, he takes greater interest 
in earthly and human affairs. No life seems 
base, no man sunk into total depravity, no 
soul lost; he has faith greater even than 
would remove mountains, — the faith that all 
human nature can be redeemed here and 
now. Change conditions, surroundings, and 
your criminal, your galley-slave, Jean Val- 
jean, becomes the honored mayor, the un- 
selfish father, the nineteenth century saint. 
So the Socialist's faith whispers. Animated 
with such a belief, he delights to see the result 



THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. 165 

of his life-effort look toward a future beyond 
his conscious life. To seek to save his soul 
alone would certainly be to lose it, because his 
highest happiness is in this work which goes 
forth for the good of all humanity. He would 
live in deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn of 
miserable ends that end in self; for so to 
live is heaven. 



PART IV. 



RECONCILIATION, AND 
CONCLUSION. 



PART IV. 



RECONCILIA TION. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HPHE three religions battling for suprem- 
acy in the Christian world have now 
been examined critically. Which of the three 
is to become supreme? The Christian, as 
now understood (differing in many import- 
ant respects from the religion enunciated by 
Jesus) is announced from church pulpits, by 
missionaries, and through its religious tracts 
and papers. The Socialistic is proclaimed in 
workmen's halls, through pamphlets, and in 
the hundred and one propagandist sheets 
such as the " Labor Enquirer," " The Nation- 
alist," "The Kolokol," etc. The Scientific 



I JO THE COMING RELIGION. 

is taught in the lecture-room, the laboratory, 
and the museum. Its Prophets are such 
men as Darwin and Tyndall and Huxley and 
Spencer; its Priests, men like Fiske and 
Cope and Lester Ward. It has its scientific 
monthlies and journals, and it preaches 
through the many essays now coming forth 
from the printing-press. What is to be the 
outcome? Is any one to trample down the 
other two? Are we to have the reign of 
Humanity, the Socialistic Utopia; or is this 
giantesque, all-absorbing Nature-Force to 
crush out every species of opposition, and 
reign supreme? 

Listening to enthusiasts who respectively 
preach each Gospel, one would imagine that 
there is no possible reconciliation. u Science 
and Christianity," they say, " are in direct 
conflict, and the very first principle of Social- 
ism is opposed to the evolutionary doctrine 
of the survival of the fittest." I think, how- 
ever, that we shall find no such great differ- 
ence ; in fact, they very much overlap each 



RE CONCILIA TION. \ J \ 

other. Truth is many-sided ; few of us see 
more than one part at a time. The enthu- 
siast is not mentally rounded ; he is abnor- 
mally one-sided. If history teaches anything 
it is this: When strong religious systems 
come warring against each other, instead of 
the outcome being simply some one of the 
many, the result is a composite made up 
more or less of all the systems. When Juda- 
ism found itself back in Palestine after the 
exile, it was not by any means the petty 
tribal Judaism that had gone forth. It was 
rather a Judaism that had taken from the 
Persians the idea of two opposing powers, — 
the Spirit of Light and the Spirit of Darkness 
(Satan), — and also much of the Persian es- 
chatology; it had taken from the Assyro- 
Babylonian religion its cosmogony; and these 
it had interwoven with its own religious con- 
ceptions. Names remained the same, but the 
ideas for which they stood were greatly al- 
tered. So with the religion of Jesus. Pagan- 
ism did not die at once, it was fused with the 



172 THE COMING RELIGION. 

new religion. The sacrificial rite called the 
Taurobolium was changed to the Sacrifice 
on the Cross; the Saturnalia joy-time stood 
for the Christ-child birthday; the Pontifex 
Maximus was taken as the proudest title of 
the Christian Bishop of Rome; and so on. 
Thus has there grown up that composite re- 
ligion which to-day we call Christianity, — a 
system which, as was said before, must not 
be strictly identified with that promulgated 
by Jesus. 

Therefore, in the light of history's teaching, 
I should say that a fusion of the three relig- 
ions we are considering will take place; and 
a composite, having the best elements of the 
three, will be the prevailing religion of the 
coming centuries. What name it will take 
cannot now be predicted. Most probably it 
will still be called Christianity ; but it will be a 
Christianity exceedingly unlike that preached 
from the average Christian pulpit of to-day. 

Let us now consider such possible recon- 
ciliation of the three systems, and note the 



RECONCILIATION. 173 

lines to be followed in order to bring about 
a fusion of the best elements in each. 

In our examination of the religion of Jesus 
we saw that each man found his motive for 
treating his neighbor with consideration and 
love in the thought of the Heavenly Father 
who watches over and cares for every one of 
his earthly children. " There is but one God 
and Father of us all," and as sons of that 
Father it follows that we are brothers, and 
should therefore act as members of one great 
family. Here we have the conception which 
Socialism is to-day teaching, — that is, of the 
international family, and the duty of each 
part to every other part, as well as to the 
whole. The foundation for such right action, 
the seat of authority, is in the alleged charac- 
ter of the Heavenly Father. Withdraw, how- 
ever, the belief in this Heavenly Father, and 
what becomes of the Christian system? 
" Why treat my neighbor with love if I do 
not wish so to do," the sceptic might say to 



174 THE COMING RELIGION. 

the follower of Jesus; "why be unselfish and 
Christ-like, if pleasure and happiness are 
obtained by me through selfishness and 
cruelty? M The answer given, that God's love 
is showered upon him in innumerable bene- 
fits, and therefore as debtor he owes it to 
God in a manner to repay the debt by doing 
all possible for other sons of God, has no 
weight. It falls to the ground because back 
of it the belief in any such Heavenly Father 
has already been abandoned. It is absolutely 
necessary, therefore, at the very threshold of 
religion to have a conception of God which 
shall not only satisfy the intellectual craving 
and the heart's desire, but, more, shall be the 
real centre and motive for right action. 

The unfortunate thing about the present 
age is that many earnest men who continue 
to believe in the Christian ethical system 
have abandoned altogether belief in the foun- 
dation-stones which give to the system sup- 
port. Enthusiasm has therefore gone out of 
their lives, and with it the joyous acquies- 



RECONCILIATION 1 75 

cence in the supposed will of Jehovah which 
the early followers of Christ showed to such 
a remarkable degree. These men see quite 
plainly the value of Christ's teachings, they 
appreciate his conception of a Universal Re- 
public, and they call themselves Christians; 
nevertheless, they are not Christians in the 
sense that Jesus was, because their faith in 
God is honeycombed with doubt. Thus has 
it come about that in their lives automatic 
customs have replaced in a large degree the 
spontaneous actions induced by the willing 
allegiance of personal affection to the Father 
in Heaven. So, too, when the other religions 
are examined it is found that the conception 
of deity which each gives may satisfy a large 
number of adherents, but fails in certain par- 
ticulars to satisfy those whose spiritual hori- 
zon is ever widening. The scientific deity, 
pure as the driven snow, is seemingly deaf to 
human despair, and exacts for an unconscious 
fault as harsh a penalty as for one consciously 
committed ; while the great god, " Humanity/' 



176 THE COMING RELIGION. 

of the Socialists fails to give that close com- 
munion with Nature, independent of man's 
sphere, which is also needed. It is a Deus 
Crbis, and contents one only when he is in 
the rush and whirl of large human centres. 
No one of these conceptions, taken alone, 
will suffice as the foundation for the future re- 
ligion. It must be not a questionable, but an 
unquestionable, support that is built upon, — 
a conception of deity large enough, true 
enough, and intimate enough to satisfy man's 
many conflicting needs. When we come to 
such a conception we shall find, I think, that 
each religion contributes something. 

The criticism of Science is just. The old 
Jewish-Christian anthropomorphic conception 
of God is not sufficient. The mind goes 
forth in quest of the living God. Once let 
the immenseness of the universe dawn upon 
one's gaze, and there is no further satisfac- 
tion in the old thought of a Father ruling in 
the heavens. His arm cannot stretch forth 



RE CONCILIA TIO AT. 



177 



along those vast radii of infinitude. Science 
flashes before the mental retina worlds on 
worlds, systems on systems, in this stupen- 
dous whole, until the mind stands bewildered 
before its attempts to reconcile all this with its 
former Mosaic firmament, in which Jehovah, 
surrounded by angels, reigned supreme. The 
old must give way; the new must come. 
What shall be that new? 

First, and of supreme importance, the hu- 
man mind must think of God not simply as 
an outside factor, not merely as the life in 
the heavens, but as the life on earth and in 
the stars, — the life-force that pulses and throbs 
in the nearest and smallest as well as in the 
farthest and greatest, the immanent, ever- 
present Reality back of all phenomena. If 
the mind stop here, it stops half-way; it but 
exchanges the old thought of a Father of 
love and tenderness who listens to human 
prayers, for that of an eternal energy sweep- 
ing on to unknown ends. The heart as well 
as the mind cries out for the living God, — 



1/8 THE COMING RELIGION. 

a God which shall satisfy the whole being. 
Nothing less will give content. 

Standing, then, on that intellectual ledge 
where Science would place us, we take for 
our companions the Priest of Humanity, the 
Scientific Philosopher, and the Apostle of 
Christianity. We listen to the suggestions of 
each as the magic wand of scientific thought 
is waved, and there come trooping by the 
elemental forces. Slowly at times they come, 
and again with the quickness of light; now 
under the form of heat, of snow, of ice, of 
electricity. Atoms turn to dust and crumble, 
solids change to liquids and gases, then re- 
incarnate themselves and take strange crys- 
talline forms, or grow before our eyes into 
plant and shrub and tree, or move as great 
beasts of the field or as the winged birds of 
the air. All this we see as the ages roll by 
and the whole course of creation is unfolded. 
Intricate, marvellous, awe-inspiring, yet com- 
prehensible, because a something deep within 
us responds to the something which moves 



RECONCILIATION. 179 

and works in these ceaseless phenomena. 
One of our companions, the Philosopher, 
whispers; as this grand review takes place, 
" The one Power which appears under guise 
so various must, in order to be adequate to 
its highest demands, include all that its su- 
preme phases display. ,, Yes, undoubtedly 
yes, is our reply. " If therefore," he contin- 
ues, " its supreme phase for us is mind, then 
this one power must be thought of, not sim- 
ply as forms of heat or light, not even as the 
vital current of our life, but as the fountain of 
our thought, with whom our relation rises at 
once from convertibility of force into com- 
munion of spirit/' Yes, we again reply. 
"What then follows ?" earnestly asks our 
Christian companion. " If we want to know 
this one Eternal in its highest expression, — 
the highest expression for mortal man, — we 
must surely study the human mind, the hu- 
man soul, in its highest individual revelation, 
even Jesus, the Christ.'' Our Socialistic com- 
panion here breaks in and says, " But no one 



1 80 THE COMING RELIGION. 

human mind is enough to study, for all are 
interdependent and related. Each studied 
alone lacks something, for each is biassed by 
his condition or environment, and is therefore 
short of the perfect. Study ambition in the 
desire of the ruler, unselfishness in the re- 
forms of the philanthropist, friendship and 
sincerity in the companionship of brothers, 
tender devotion and unquenchable love in the 
heart of the mother; and when you have 
realized what all these are in the ideal indi- 
vidual in hnmanity> you have realized what 
God is." 

God, then, is the eternal energy in the 
forces of Nature, the Supreme Intelligence 
working in and through these forces, and 
driving on to a definite end in the blind in- 
stincts of the animal. God is the Life-force 
of all sentient beings. But God is more. 
Welling up into the consciousness of man 
as directive will, and in the heart as divine 
unselfishness, — as love, — God forms the 
centre of being, out from which springs into 



RECONCILIATION. i8l 

action all that in man is highest, purest, and 
most exalted. From this God we cannot 
escape. " Whither shall I go from thy spirit? 
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there : if 
I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
there." Awake out of thy ignorance, O man ! 
What life is this around thee? What Energy 
and Power this of which thou art sensible? 
What Intelligence this that thy thought 
faintly comprehends? All this is God and 
of God. The universe is aflame with the 
living God. Worship him, then, by living 
out thine own life in its best and fullest mean- 
ing, for behold, " the temple of the Lord is 
holy, which temple ye are." 

What name, then, shall be given to this 
Supreme Infinite One? Shall it be named 
" Law"? No; for, as we have seen, law is 
but the way of its manifestation. Will " En- 
ergy" suffice? No; for energy simply tells 
of its continued and manifold activity, — its 
powers. Shall we name it "Life"? It is 



lS2 THE COMING RELIGION. 

more, for life but speaks of its continuance. 
Yesterday, to-day, and forever. Can " Love" 
embrace all that is meant? It is more, for 
love is but one of its attributes. What then 
shall we name it? The All- Enfolding 
CONSCIOUSNESS. Greater name than this no 
man can conceive of, for this comprehends and 
embraces every struggling human mind that 
is and was and shall be, world without end. 

What effect will this conception of deity 
have on the theory of human brotherhood? 
It deepens it, makes the thought more exact, 
more intimate. This neighbor of thine is 
indeed a child of God, as the Christian main- 
tains; for the same life that animates thee 
animates him. He is indeed not a whole 
in and of himself, an outside factor, cut off 
and apart from thee, but, as the Socialist 
asserts, he is a part of the whole; an injury 
to him means an injury to thee, a joy to him 
is a joy to thee. Therefore thou shalt not 
only love thy neighbor, but act as if thou 
thyself must bear the penalty of wrong acts 



RE CONCILIA TIOAT. \ 8 3 

performed by him as by thee. " Treat the 
two lives as one life." Doing this, it follows 
that there must be a recognition, though 
religiously interpreted, of the humanitarian 
motto, " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." 
Liberty: To my neighbor that same oppor- 
tunity that I demand for myself to follow 
whithersoever truth leads. My neighbor no 
more than I to be bound by unjust social or 
industrial conditions, nor to be coerced by 
any creed, book of discipline, arbitrary politi- 
cal power, or council of bishops. Equality : 
The essential equality of all men before the 
high spiritual law, regardless of name or 
nationality. The infinite life flows in and 
through them all ; hence there is no arbitrary 
election for any one, no arbitrary pardon or 
redemption for some, no revelation enjoyed 
and in the private possession of a few favored 
ones. No ; in this respect men stand on a 
perfect equality. Fraternity ; The coming 
religion will recognize man, be he Catholic, 
Mohametan, Buddhist, or Agnostic. All are 
emanations of the one eternal energy, all 



1 84 THE COMING RELIGION. 

share a common nature and a common des- 
tiny, — all brothers, yet each seeking to realize 
the best ideal within him in a manner more 
or less peculiar to himself. 

To him who lives in this larger thought of 
God it is not difficult to appeal. Coming 
from the mountain-top of vision, where all 
human life is revealed in its proper relations, 
he will be willing and anxious — 

" To serve 
The lowliest needs for which the god-man died, 
And do it all for love." 

But to him who does not so live, how shall 
the appeal be made? What reasons can the 
coming religion adduce powerful enough to 
carry conviction to the sceptic or to the 
average hard-hearted man encased in selfish- 
ness ? We must look mainly to the religion 
of Science for these reasons ; but before do- 
ing so, let us make a digression, so that even- 
tually we shall better appreciate the force of 
the scientific arguments brought to bear on 
human conduct. 



RE CONCILIA TION. 1 8 5 

First, note that in exchanging the Christian 
conception of God for a vaster, more inclu- 
sive one, we exchange at the same time the 
regulative force which governs in the world. 
To a sincere believer in the old idea of the 
Father in Heaven the directive mind of the 
world is a capricious one. By that I mean 
that it acts, or can act, separate and apart 
from the ordinary laws which rule the uni- 
verse. If this be not so, then there is no 
meaning in such commands as " Ask, and it 
shall be given you ; " " If ye had faith as a 
grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this 
sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the 
root, and be thou planted in the sea : and it 
should obey you; " " All things, whatsoever 
ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall 
receive. ,, The objection may be made that 
these injunctions of Jesus must not be taken 
literally; but if not, in what way then? If 
taken figuratively, to how great an extent, 
and who shall decide? Surely they have 
been taken literally for eighteen hundred 



1 86 THE COMING RELIGION. 

years, and petitions have gone up to heaven 
for rain or health or victory or prosperity 
or the thousand and one things most needed. 
Can all the Christian ages back of us be in 
error? Is the interpretation given to Jesus* 
words by saints and martyrs and preachers 
now to be cast aside as wrong? Logically, 
capriciousness springs out of the very con- 
ception of a Heavenly Father such as is 
described in the New Testament; and belief 
in what we to-day term " miracles " is simply 
belief that this Heavenly Father, if he so 
desires, may set aside the cosmical laws, and 
does so at certain times for his own good 
pleasure. Even the statement that a so-called 
miracle is but the manifestation of a higher 
law does not meet the demand ; for if there 
is to come in at certain unexpected and 
unprovided-for times the working of super- 
natural laws, the human mind can place no 
dependence upon the sequence and uniform- 
ity of natural laws. So called supernatural 
law, which cannot be accounted for as to 



RECONCILIA T/OM 1 8 7 

time or method of manifestation, is, so far as 

human experience goes, fully as destructive 

of confidence in the general idea of order 

and law as the freest caprice of the most 

irresponsible demon. 

The coming religion, then, founds itself 

squarely on law. To quote the words of 

Martineau : — 

" It believes that the same physical geometry which 
interprets the path of a projectile or the sweep of a 
comet is still available in the most distant heavens, 
and that the star-traced diagrams of remotest space 
are embodied reasonings of the same science which 
works its problems on the blackboard of every school. 
So confident do we feel that there is not one truth 
here and another there, that no sooner does a lumi- 
nous ray out of the sky produce in its spectrum the 
same adjustment of lines and colors which our in- 
candescent chemicals have been made to paint upon 
the wall, than we pronounce at once upon the materials 
supplying the solar and stellar fires. . . . Whether 
in the movements of reason God descends to us, or 
we ascend to him, it is by the path of law, which 
stretches across the spaces of the world." 

To a believer in the ancient faith this 
thought of a universe moved and governed 



1 88 THE COMING RELIGION'. 

by immutable laws may bring no comfort. 
It may seem like a deprivation to take from 
him the thought of the Father above, who 
looks down upon men with an infinite ten- 
derness and sympathy, " whose eyes are over 
the righteous, and whose ears are open unto 
their prayers." This lacing and interlacing 
of law disclosed by Science ; this being en- 
twined by it, moved by it; this wondrous, 
awful, terrible machine of a universe working 
pitilessly onward like some giant Corliss 
steam-engine, — the thought of it, when it 
comes consciously to the sincere believer in 
the Christian theology, affrights him, makes 
human life appear bare of all divine com- 
panionship. Such a one truly exclaims, 
" They have taken away my Lord ! " or else 
bursts forth in the indignant protest of 

Wordsworth, — 

" I 'd rather be 
A Pagan suckled by a creed outworn, 
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn." 

The view of a machine-like universe, it is 

true, has no comfort in it. The heavens 



RECONCILIATION. 189 

seem as brass; dull and colorless is the 
landscape ; birth, youth, love, and death are 
only forms, states, conditions, of the process. 
Creak, creak, goes the ponderous machinery 
which crushes one and all alike ! The Per- 
sian poem of " Rubaiyat " sums it up in the 
lines : — 

u Fools ! your revenge is neither here nor there. The 
Eternal Saki from that Bowl has poured millions of 
bubbles like us, and will pour, 

When you and I to dust are turned." 

Fortunately the human mind, if it be true 
to itself, will not rest in this partial, and 
therefore distorted, view of the truth. It 
must push on; and as it pushes on and out, 
it discovers — what? this: that it is by the 
invariableness of these very laws inherent in 
creation that man is best able to progress. 
Examine the two systems, — Divine inter- 
ference (caprice) on the one side;* eternal 
immutableness (law) on the other, — and see 
which is really of lasting value. 

In our examination of the religion of 



190 THE COMING RELIGION. 

Science we found that the law of manifesta- 
tion is the way a thing invariably acts under 
certain conditions. A man trusting to the 
law of gravity is safe in building his house in 
a certain part of the city ; he does not expect 
to awake in the morning and find his home a 
hundred feet up in the air, or removed to the 
side of a mountain. In a world of caprice 
such as is pictured in the Arabian Nights it 
may be possible, but not in a world of law, 
where freaks and inexplicable changes are 
impossible. In the old days the world was 
supposed to be governed by caprice, by a 
multiplicity of gods and devils. Each god 
or demon had certain special powers, and, in 
spite of man's best effort, first one obtained 
the ascendency, and then the other. Liba- 
tions and sacrifices had to be constantly 
offered to the gods, and charms and spells 
woven against the power of demons. Woe 
to that luckless offender who forgot the 
proper respect or duty he owed to these 
supernatural powers ! Sooner or later, ven- 



RE CONCILIA TION. \ g i 

geance followed. Take, for illustration, the 
history of Isdubar, the Babylonian hero who 
rejects the overtures of the goddess Ishtar, 
and how enraged love turned to hate brings 
fearful retribution on the sacrilegious mortal ! 
Not content with robbing Isdubar of his 
friend Eabani, the goddess takes from him 
his strength and smites him with sickness; 
then stirs up distrust and mutiny among the 
people, and forces Isdubar to wander to the 
ends of the earth. Greek history and my- 
thology are filled with stories showing the 
interference of gods in the affairs of men. 
There is the pathetic story of Niobe, queen 
of Thebes, who, because she failed to pay 
proper respect to Latona, had one after an- 
other of her children killed by Apollo. Six 
of her children are now dead, says the ac- 
count, and only one remains, whom the 
mother holds clasped in her arms, covering 
it with her whole body. "Spare me one, 
and that the youngest ! " she cried. While 
she spoke, that one fell dead. The vengeance 



192 THE COMJXG RELIGION. 

of the gods indeed accomplished its work, 
for the life of the mother passed away even 
in that moment when her last child was 
taken. 

Men could not long live in a faith like this. 
Caprice once admitted, there was no rule of 
action ; life at any moment might be hindered 
or suspended, and one's best attempts come 
to naught, simply through the spite of even 
some minor spirit. The uselessness of all 
human knowledge and personal effort is the 
outcome of such a theory. Why try to be 
strong and brave if it can all be made of no 
value by the touch of a god? Why struggle 
against an enemy if that enemy have super- 
natural powers on his side ? How can the 
Trojans win when Poseidon, Here, and Pal- 
las are all on the side of the Greeks? The 
belief in supernatural interference, too capri- 
cious to be always relied on, if carried to its 
logical outcome leads inevitably to quietism 
and despair. The change from polytheism 
(or belief in many gods) to monotheism (or 



RE CONCILIA TION. 1 93 

belief in one god) does not help the matter. 
There is still an unknown force to be taken 
into account, and one can therefore never be 
quite sure of the result in any given crisis. 
In the Middle Ages men reverted to the old 
belief in irresponsible impulse; again was the 
world ruled by demons and imps, and angels 
and spirits of hell, heaven, and the atmos- 
phere. As in old times, the mediaeval period 
proved a season of darkness, when fear and 
disordered imagination ruled supreme. No 
wonder that there has come down to us 
stories of most uncanny religious rites, of 
sorcerers and astrologers and incantationists 
and witches ; no wonder, either, that men and 
women were whipped and tortured because 
they were supposed to have an inner devil, 
or flayed alive because supposed to be were- 
wolves, or burned at the stake because feared 
as witches. Had such a frightful belief in 
elements and storms ruled by devils, in man 
possessed by demons, in witches leagued with 
Satan, continued much longer, the world 
13 



194 THE COMING RELIGION. 

would have become a vast pandemonium, — 
brother's hand raised against brother, neigh- 
bor over against neighbor; intellectual and 
moral chaos the inevitable end. 

From the very needs, then, of human na- 
ture, one is logically forced along into seeing 
that whatever may temporarily seem best, 
the only true best is for this universe to be 
governed, not by caprice, but by immutable 
laws, — laws which, on account of their un- 
changeableness, can always be relied upon, 
and when once learned and obeyed, will never 
fail, though countless centuries pass over the 
earth. 

Take the game of chess for illustration. By 
the laws of the game one is strictly limited 
to certain moves, — that is, he cannot jump 
his knights around as he may his queen, or 
move the king three or seven squares at a 
time ; he cannot take up his castle and slide 
it along diagonally as he does the bishop. 
Chess can only be chess, it can only give the 
players opportunities for endless combina- 



RECOXCILIA T/OJV. 195 

tions, when the conditions which reside in 
the pieces are respected, and the players 
make use of each in its legitimate way. This 
done, what a chance there is for thought and 
study; what individuality can be thrown into 
the game ! No one surely would say that 
because a castle had to be moved invariably 
as a castle, and a pawn as a pawn, that there- 
fore the player's liberty was restricted and 
his freedom of action taken away; neither 
could it be said that his choice was a farce 
because moves in certain directions, and only 
in those directions, were made necessary. 
Criticism of such a character would be most 
superficial. Give the player absolute freedom 
to violate all rules, or let some one at his 
shoulder have the power to move any piece 
on the board in any manner desired, and the 
game is destroyed; there is nothing left to 
the whole thing but the most thoughtless and 
foolish child's play. Paradoxical as the state- 
ment seems, it is by the very limitation in the 
chess pieces, and the necessity of observing 



196 THE COMING RELIGION. 

» — ■ 

and using the laws of their movement, that 
the fullest freedom and opportunity is made 
possible to the player. Thus and thus only 
is there a chance for the exercise of his 
ripest thought and experience. 

Here is the chess-board of the world, here 
stand the pieces ready to man's hand. No 
capricious power standing over him is going 
to interfere and disconcert him as he pa- 
tiently advances, first his weak pawns, after- 
wards the stronger figures. Neither is that 
power ready to interfere for his benefit by a 
miraculously wonderful move which shall get 
the king out of danger when he by foolish 
or thoughtless play has so blocked and con- 
fused his game as nearly to be checkmated. 
Granted in a game of chess that one has 
patience, industry, and keenness, of what 
avail are these if there is not combined with 
them a familiarity with the uses of each piece 
and the law of their movement; if one igno- 
rantly relies on a pawn when he needs the 
power that there is in a knight ? One's 



RECONCILIA TIOJST. 1 97 

virtues will count for little without the neces- 
sary knowledge accompanying them. First, 
then, a man must take the precaution to learn 
the inherent power residing in the various 
pieces. This knowledge once his, united with 
respect and obedience for the chess laws, and 
his freedom of action is practically limitless. 
As in chess, so in life, the first qualification, 
the most essential thing, is to learn exactly 
what can be done under each law governing 
our being. Neglect these laws, fail to study 
them, move in a wrong direction, and defeat 
comes ; there is no escape. 

Let us carry our already amplified illustra- 
tion one step farther. Man when he was 
created and set down to this chess-board of 
life knew nothing of the laws governing the 
game, knew not which of the pieces before 
him should be used. Consequently he made 
mistakes and failed of complete success. 
Generation after generation, although gain- 
ing in knowledge, was also thus doomed to 
defeat. Shall it be said that such an ending 



198 THE COMING RELIGION. 

to tribe and nation was vain, useless, cruel? 
Before deciding, let us ask, What other meth- 
ods were possible? Two others. One of 
these is the method which has been discussed 
already in these pages, and which the world 
is rejecting, — that of some supernatural 
power stepping in just at the moment of 
danger, bringing things out aright for those 
who found favor in his sight. The second 
method is that of an animating power that 
guides every movement of each player, and 
sees to it that one and all make no mistakes. 
This, while bringing out the desired result, 
turns man simply into an automaton. Any- 
thing like free will to choose is out of the 
question. Man is simply a machine, doing 
right, not because prompted and yielding to 
the prompting of an inner voice, but because 
he is dominated by an outward force stronger 
than himself. 

Imagine, as Adam steps forth from the gates 
of Paradise, that there stretch before him 
some half-dozen roads, only one of which 



RE CONCILIA TIONi 1 99 

will lead him in the right direction. What, 
under the circumstances, is the best thing that 
can happen for the development of Adam's 
own nature? Suppose the flaming cherubim 
forcibly push our first parent on the right 
road : it is not Adam then that is choosing, 
or using his reasoning faculties, it is the 
cherubim. Suppose Adam takes a wrong 
road of his own choice, and is finally led by 
it into most dangerous places : a river stretches 
before him which he cannot cross, — he kneels 
down and prays ; at once there is a transfor- 
mation scene : the waters are backed up on 
either side, and in the pathway thus made, 
Adam walks safely across and passes on to 
his journey's end. If such miracles should 
happen, upon what would Adam himself in 
the future base his confidence? Of what 
good would be his experience to Cain and 
Abel? " True," the sons might reply, " such 
and such things happened in your day; but 
will they happen with us? Can we rely on 



200 THE COMING RELIGION. 

their happening? We might follow out ex- 
actly what your experience dictates, and un- 
expectedly, because of the prayers of those 
unknown to us, some freak, some miracle, 
might make all our plans and efforts useless." 
As Rev. Mr. Simmons truly says, — 

" Supernatural interference might indeed stop the 
sun in mid-heaven so that some savage battle might 
be fought ; but it would derange the time of all man- 
kind, send thousands of ships astray, end the astron- 
omers' work forever, and utterly destroy the faith 
on which their science is founded. It might indeed 
be convenient to have seas open, and rivers stop and 
wait for pious people to walk across ; but no ships 
would dare sail the seas, and no mills would be built 
on the rivers. Great commercial cities are founded 
on the faith that the rivers will never suffer such a 
miracle. Better, then, that some saint foolishly em- 
barking in a rotten vessel should drown, than to have 
the world lose its confidence in those hydrostatic laws 
which guard its navies and insure its marine trade and 
travel." 

Reason as we will, we must admit that the 
only rational, helpful way in which this uni- 



RE CONCILIA T/OM 20 1 

verse can be ruled, is by law, and that the 
best way for man to gain knowledge of such 
law is by his own attempts, his own choice, his 
own failures and successes, — in a word, by 
his own experience. Only in this way is he 
a free moral agent. 

The actual state of affairs, then, is more 
potent with promise, speaks more truly of infi- 
nite wisdom, gives to the mind more oppor- 
tunity, to the heart more joy and buoyancy, 
than can any possible man-made theory as to 
what ought to be. For myself, I glory in 
this new revelation that I am in the hands of 
a Power in which supremest confidence can 
be placed ; who gives to me my opportunity, 
and who is ever softly, solemnly whispering : 
" My child, work out thine own salvation. 
Be thou faithful unto death. I am with 
thee always ; be not afraid. I the Lord, the 
Eternal, I form the light and create dark- 
ness ; I make peace and create evil ; I alone 
Am. Make thyself worthy, for now is the 



202 THE COMING RELIGION. 

appointed time ; make thyself worthy to be 
called son of God and joint-heir with Christ in 
heaven/' Even as with the Psalmist of old, 
so may each in all these coming years in per- 
fect trust cry out : " My heart is fixed in thee, 
O God, my heart is fixed in thee ! " 



RECONCILIATION 203 



CHAPTER X. 

TN the preceding chapter on Reconciliation, 
attention was directed to the fact that the 
world was governed by law, and not by 
caprice or divine interference ; the con- 
clusion having been drawn from the facts 
presented that through law man as a free 
rational moral agent has the most assured 
opportunity to work out his own salvation, 
to develop and progress. Confidence in 
Nature is thus begotten, and consequently 
orderly progression made possible for all 
mankind. It v/as a most important thing 
in the development of the religious idea to 
reach such a conclusion, to see with the eye 
of reason that the present world as at present 
managed is the best for the reconciliation 
of the various needs which the human mind 



204 THE COMING RELIGION. 

experiences. Because, however, so optimis- 
tic a conclusion has been attained, let us not 
ignore what the Socialist affirms, and pre- 
sume that the present conditions surrounding 
us are the best possible for human happiness 
and development. Many other players have 
been at this chess-board of life, and the com- 
binations have thus become sadly confused. 
By making wrong moves they have made it 
more difficult for their successors to work 
out from the disorder successful and har- 
monious arrangements. Undoubtedly, how- 
ever, such harmonious combinations can be 
made, and made too by the present genera- 
tion if it earnestly try to effect them in 
accordance with the inherent laws governing 
the moves. 

This, then, is man's duty, his work in life, 
— so to move, so to act, that he shall help 
produce harmony and order; or, as the 
Biblical writer puts it, " be reconciled to 
God," and help bring other men into recon- 
ciliation. Selfishness, therefore, — or rather 



RE CONCILIA TION. 205 

an enlightened reason, — would dictate to 
every man who loves himself and his own 
life a study of the laws of body and mind, 
and then a living up to them, so as to enjoy 
as much as possible the present worldly ex- 
istence. In fact, such a body of men once 
did exist; they are known in history as the 
Epicureans. Disbelieving in a future, their 
philosophy may be summed up in the motto, 
" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we 
die." Pleasure by them was studied as a 
science. Just how much one should eat so 
as to get the most enjoyment out of it, and 
in what order wines should be served to 
keep the keenness of taste ; to bathe, but not 
to overbathe ; to exercise in order to main- 
tain a vigorous digestion; not to be too 
sensual, so as not to lose at too early an 
age the enjoyment of sensuality, — all these 
things occupied their thought as probably 
they have that of no other body of men 
since. Unfortunately for the Epicurean, and 
unfortunately for every man who in his crafty 



206 THE COMING RELIGION. 

selfishness says, " I will live a proper life 
according to the laws of my being, because 
that is the kind of life which will give me 
most happiness," — the modern scientific 
dictum declares that, sooner or later, such a 
policy defeats itself. As to the Epicurean 
in the Bible, so the sentence may come at 
the hour when selfish plans are about to be 
consummated, " Thou fool, this night thy 
soul shall be required of thee." The supreme 
directing Intelligence is not easily baffled, 
and the command which says, " Be ye recon- 
ciled to God," adds just as imperatively, 
" Help others so to be." 

It can now be seen how the coming relig- 
ion, obtaining its sanction from science, will 
be supplied with overwhelming reasons why 
the sceptic cannot continue to live encased 
in his selfishness and be successful. Whether 
he believes or does not believe in a God, let 
his spiritual evolution be much or little, one 
thing is sure, — he cannot escape from his 
obligations to his fellows and to the world. 



RECONCILIATION. 207 

The facts which science brings to bear, 
illustrated as they are in a thousand ways, 
are not to be denied ; neither can he hope 
to ignore or evade them as the enthusiastic 
devotee of a capricious God, through prayer, 
by rich gifts, or by faith, may hope to escape 
the consequences of his sins. There is no 
fountain filled with blood in which he can 
plunge and lose all his guilty stains. The 
very idea of law shuts out the least hope 
of escape from wrong action, and makes it 
absolutely sure that " whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." 

We are now prepared to see that the 
exhortation to unselfishness expressed by the 
three religions in the commands : " Be al- 
truistic," " Have enthusiasm for Humanity," 
" Love your neighbor as yourself/' have 
sanctions in the very root and fibre of 
man's being. They are not to be heeded or 
unheeded as one likes, they are absolutely 
compulsory. 

Naturally it is asked of these three religions, 



20S THE COMING RELIGION. 

What shall be done, what left undone ? 
Again, they all agree that the aim and end of 
life shall be the elevation of humanity and 
the perfecting of self, though they differ 
greatly as to how perfection (or Unfoldment) 
of self can be brought about, and seemingly 
differ even more when it comes to the ques- 
tion of how best the human race may be 
elevated. I say seemingly ; for our study thus 
far has shown that these three religions are 
each emphasizing some one great segment of 
the circle of truth, and often overlap and har- 
monize even when the expressions used are 
apparently opposed and contradictory. This 
world-wide co-operative state of Socialism, 
what is it but the universal Christian com- 
monwealth, in which men's interests are iden- 
tical and not inimical to one another, and 
where they shall live, not as enemies, but as 
brothers and helpers? Such an international 
body politic, in which each citizen should 
know the laws of life and of society and act 
as science dictates, would coincide with that 



RECONCILIA TWA: 209 

harmonious differentiated human organiza- 
tion which the Gospel of Evolution bids us 
bear continually in mind. 

The final goals being so similar, we next 
ask, Will the coming religion adopt the 
method of reaching the ideal goal suggested 
by any one religion, or will there be a blend- 
ing of various means? Undoubtedly there 
will be a blending of the various means, but 
just how far that blending will go, no man 
can predict. A few things, however, are 
certain. These three religions, though al- 
most parallel, are slowly converging, and 
eventually they must meet at the same place, 
— that place being the "International Co- 
operative State," the " Universal Kingdom of 
God," or the " Evolved Human Organization," 
according as we please to term it. 

The followers of each religion, on the 
whole, are travelling in the right direction ; 
but now and again, according as they travel 
over mountains and their view is vast, or 
through swamps and shadowy places and 
14 



2IO THE COMING RELIGION. 

their view is narrow, they lose the right road 
and pass into by-ways leading no whither, or 
to actual destruction. The adherents of the 
religion of Science, who at times get such a 
wide sweep of vision from their elevated posi- 
tion, who see through the ages the slow 
course of evolvement, are too likely to con- 
tent themselves with feeling that the great 
Power which moves and works for righteous- 
ness will in the end bring out all things well, 
and to ignore its offers of spiritual sympathy 
and support. They discourage the impatient 
man of action by saying that changes come 
but slowly, that centuries are needed for im- 
provement. Although they know, when they 
stop to realize it, that they too are a part 
of the Evolutionary Power, yet their efforts 
seem so small, in comparison to Nature's 
mighty work, that they practically sink into a 
species of quietism, almost fatalism, content- 
ing themselves rather with discovering and 
preaching the truth than attempting to em- 
body it in human institutions. On the other 



RECONCILIA TIOiV. 2 1 1 

hand, the Socialist is either ignorant or for- 
getful of the great Power that moves and 
works through the ages ; he would change 
things rapidly, and depends too largely on 
human instrumentality for such change. He 
needs to be shown how the present is but the 
development of the past, and that the future 
can be nothing more than the evolved expres- 
sion of all the present combined with all the 
past. Greater patience will thus be wrought 
into his mental fibre, and he will come to see 
that the modern so-called anarchical and 
chaotic system of industrialism is inevitable, 
marking the transition period from national- 
ism to internationalism; that in course of 
time it will pass away and be replaced by 
one in which co-operation and reciprocity will 
largely prevail. The scientist needs to be 
reminded by the Socialist that the coming of 
this improved state can be greatly hastened 
by enthusiastic human effort; he needs to 
have recalled to his mind those " leaps " in 
the order of Evolution where human nature 



212 THE COMING RELIGION. 

gathers itself up for a great effort, calling on 
no outside or supernatural power, but simply 
putting forth its own latent strength, and 
springing with a mighty bound into a higher 
state of civilization, Enthusiasm, if properly 
awakened, will cause great bodies of men to 
act in concert and to perform almost phenome- 
nal deeds. The enthusiasm which called forth 
from the feeble and scattered desert tribes of 
Arabia a mighty army to conquer half the 
world for Mahometanism can still be invoked ; 
the enthusiasm which in the ninth and tenth 
centuries urged men of different nationalities 
to renounce all the prizes of this world and 
take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience 
to a single head, co-operating for a common 
weal, can still dominate and lead nations of 
the twentieth century to co-operation. 

The preachers of the Gospel of Jesus, as 
has been truly declared, " must not allow its 
glorious message to be understood simply as 
a message of hope and comfort in view of a 
future world ; rather must it be made to march 



RECONCILIATION'. 213 

directly with the complex relations of modern 
society." The religion of Humanity would 
teach those followers of Jesus who have 
swerved into a side path, and who repeat to 
the poor of this earth the injunction, " Love 
one another," that justice as well as love is 
necessary ; that right relations are as essential 
as right feelings. A certain tree may be 
pulled up by the roots. The tree remains the 
same, — the sap and vitality are yet within 
it; the ground too from which it was taken 
has not changed : yet the tree slowly dies. 
To tell the sap to go out into new leaf and 
blossom is useless until the tree is restored to 
right relations with its environment. To tell 
the life principle of love to flow forth into 
kindly thought and tender deed as long as 
men are out of right relations with their sur- 
roundings is equally useless. Socialism thus 
calls the attention of the Christian to the 
things which must be done, even as Science, 
from its larger knowledge, predicts which of 
such actions will probably result in good or 
harm to the human race. 



2 14 THE COMING RELIGION. 

It must be remembered, right here, that 
most men are swayed far more by sentiments 
and emotions than by thoughts. It is abso- 
lutely necessary, therefore, for the coming 
religion to have some great ideal, some tow- 
ering symbol, the mere sight or mention of 
which shall awaken unbounded enthusiasm. 
Christianity, in the old days, had the cross- 
symbol of self-sacrifice ; the army of Constan- 
tine seeing that blazing token in the sky went 
on to victory, as more than one crusade since 
then has done. To-day this emblem has 
lost its original power; its elevation does not 
awaken the same fervor. What shall take its 
place? In Roman Catholic countries there 
was a time when the crucifix aroused much 
religious earnestness ; but even if it still con- 
tinues to do so among Catholics, it has come 
to be looked upon as the symbol of a parti- 
cular Church, and therefore fails of general 
acceptance. The " Stars and Stripes " of the 
United States, as a token of political and 
religious liberty, awakens boundless enthusi- 



RE CONCILIA TION. 2 1 5 

asm in thousands of men. When that flag of 
freedom is unfurled, and in its name citizens 
and soldiers are told to charge even to the 
cannon's mouth, they go forward willingly, 
gladly laying down their lives in platoons and 
companies, like bouquets of flowers offered 
before the altar of patriotism. Still, the " Stars 
and Stripes," however admirable, is not — up 
to the present time — accepted as more than 
a national banner; a Russian, a Turk, a Span- 
iard, can hardly be stirred to ardor by its 
sight. The red flag of Socialism seems to 
come nearer to an international symbol ; in 
Germany, in Great Britain, in France, in Rus- 
sia, and in parts of America and Australia we 
find men and women aroused to enthusiastic 
frenzy by its sight. This symbol, however, 
has stood in the past for so much lawlessness, 
passion, and bloodshed that it will never be 
acknowledged by Christian or scientist as a 
symbol pure and worthy enough to wave at 
the head of the on-coming generations. 

What then can we hope to have as a fitting 



21 6 THE COMING RELIGION. 

emblem? The thing which each religion is 
struggling to accomplish. Science is looking 
forward to seeing evolve from all this stir and 
strife of the ages a perfectly developed man 
in heart, mind, and body; all its teaching 
goes forth toward the accomplishing of this 
one thing. Socialism, too, has set before 
it the idealized expression of Humanity in 
the thought of the perfect man. Modern 
Christianity looks not so much to the Heav- 
enly Father who is perfect, but enjoins its 
followers to be perfect like unto Jesus, the 
Christ of revelation and of history. Here, 
then, each religion has the same ideal. It is 
the perfect man. Such, then, shall be the 
symbol of the coming kingdom of God; 
such shall be elevated as the emblem of the 
citizen who shall dwell in the co-operative 
state ; such the figure of him who shall in- 
habit the completed earth. 

It may be that as this symbol grows into 
shape, as sculptors and artists, dominated by 
lofty religious genius, try to carve the linea- 



RECONCILIA TION. 2 1 7 

ments of a perfectly evolved man, as they 
try to find a form, a position, a definite ges- 
ture which shall mean most to the world, that 
not so much by common consent as by com- 
mon necessity they will find themselves 
depicting one who stands with arms out- 
stretched, in the attitude of universal invita- 
tion, saying in effect to all mankind, " Come 
unto me ! " Strength and yet gentleness will 
be combined in the features, sympathy with all 
the past, as well as noble prophecy of all the 
future. An emblem so divine in conception 
that, as we look upon it, we shall involunta- 
rily exclaim, " Son of God ! " and yet so true 
to what each one of us may become that 
when we seek for a common title none better 
or more fitting will be suggested than " Son 
of Man ! " This symbol, made world wide, 
and elevated as the international emblem, 
shall be accepted as the type, the hope, 
which each nation holds as to its future. 



218 THE COMING RELIGION. 



CONCLUSION. 



CHAPTER XL 

r I ^HE enthusiastic believer in any one of 
the religious systems described in the 
last chapters may object to the trend which 
we predict the coming religion will take ; he 
may say, and perhaps with truth, that our 
representation of his religion has lacked care- 
ful proportions or ignored important ele- 
ments. Our purpose at the most has been 
simply to sketch each religion in outline. We 
have brought each up to the standard of our 
definition of what a religion should include, 
and measured it by that standard. More 
than this has not been attempted. As to all 
the elements which shall enter into the com- 
ing religion, it is not ours to decide. What- 
ever be our personal desire, it is certain that 



CONCLUSION. 219 



each religion is being modified somewhat by 
the others. Few Christian preachers of to- 
day preach the old conception of a snug 
little universe, with its hell below, its earth 
in the midst, and its circling firmament 
above, dotted with stars and planets, at the 
zenith of which is God's throne. Whether 
they know or do not know whence comes 
the modification, it is undoubtedly true that 
their notion of the universe and of God is 
approaching nearer and nearer the scientific 
idea. So, too, as to prayer : the old words 
may be repeated, — those time-honored lit- 
urgies that breathe belief in a Power changing 
its purpose to ours if we but beseech it and 
continue to beseech it as " Good Lord " long 
enough, — I say the words may be repeated 
by Christians, and in times of emotional en- 
thusiasm, such as at " revivals," believed in ; 
still, during the after weeks, in the transac- 
tions of business, in the ordering of their 
lives, or in the subjugation of Nature's forces, 
they show (whatever their profession) that 



220 THE COMING RELIGION. 

their actual belief is in the invariableness of 
law. 

For an illustration of how the current Chris- 
tian belief is departing more and more from 
the New Testament standard, take the ques- 
tion of divorce. If the Gospel of Mark be the 
oldest, and therefore probably the most au- 
thentic, of the Gospels, there is little doubt — 
judging from the command in the tenth chap- 
ter, and again from the words found in Luke 
(xvi. 1 8) — that Jesus in the most emphatic 
way set his stamp of disapproval upon divorce. 
In the explanation to the disciples which it is 
said occurred in the privacy of the house, in 
the inner circle of friends, there is no quali- 
fying clause. The statement is clear and ex- 
plicit that the marriage union must not be 
broken; the man putting away his wife, or 
the woman freeing herself from her husband, 
being guilty of mortal sin. Has the Christian 
Church in this century been true to the 
teaching of the Nazarene? Far from it. 
Tolstoi, the Russian nobleman who would 



CONCLUSION. 221 



get back to the religion of Jesus, bewails the 
large indulgence permitted to communicants 
by the Orthodox Greek clergy, and in most 
vigorous terms denounces as unscriptural and 
unchristian the laxity on this subject of the 
National Church. In spite, however, of the 
great influence exerted on Russian thought 
by Tolstoi, his denunciation of divorce pro- 
duces little effect. Whether Jesus fully pro- 
hibited it or not seems a matter of small 
moment to thousands of thoughtful men and 
women, living not only in Russia, but in every 
other part of Europe and America. It is 
being more and more felt, let the religious 
teachings be what they may, that no man 
has the right to stunt moral and mental 
growth, to destroy all his future happiness, 
and to cripple his usefulness to society be- 
cause he finds himself linked for life to a 
companion in no way suitable, whose esca- 
pades, senseless extravagance, and general law- 
lessness make home and family entirely out 
of the question. With just as much force, it 
is believed that no woman should allow her- 



222 THE COMING RELIGION. 

self to be made a beast of burden, or turned 
into a plaything, a mere instrument of volup- 
tuousness, by a coarse-grained, brutal hus- 
band. A duty in the world is given to her, 
and science has declared what that duty is. 
She must develop and progress into fullest, 
fairest human form (physical and mental) 
possible in the present stage of evolution. 
If she submissively assent to unchangeable 
marriage laws, allowing herself to be yoked 
to an unsuitable mate, then her punishment 
is sure. " Day by day she shall lower to' his 
level, what is fine within her growing coarse 
to sympathize with clay." Has not Tenny- 
son voiced the sentiment of the nineteenth 
century when, in speaking in "Locksley Hall" 
of his cousin Amy, he says, — 

"As the husband is, the wife is: thou art mated with 
a clown, 
And the grossness of his nature will have weight to 
drag thee down. 

"He will hold thee, when his passion shall have 
spent its novel force, 
Something better than his dog, a little dearer than 
his horse." 



CONCLUSION. 223 



Again, take the subject of charity. The 
religion of Jesus says, in most explicit phrase, 
" Give to him that asketh thee, and from him 
that would borrow of thee turn not thou 
away." On this principle Christian charity 
has been dispensed for hundreds of years. 
In the last decade, scientific scholars have 
pointed out so clearly the harm to society 
which such a course involves that our whole 
charitable system is now being amended. To 
those unfamiliar with the subject, the state- 
ment may scarcely be believed when it is 
affirmed that the present Associated Charity 
system is not Christian ; that is, it is not 
conducted on what has so far been consid- 
ered Christian lines. Help is often withheld 
from the undeserving ; the shiftless are made 
to work, and work hard, for a livelihood ; and 
one of the Socialistic sayings, " He that will 
not work, neither shall he eat," is continually 
quoted by those in authority. The persist- 
ent and steady attempt of every Associated 
Charity Board to bring about different con- 



224 THE COMING RELIGION. 

ditions, to change or mould the environment 
of the indolent loafer, the vicious man, or the 
drunkard, is directly in line with the main pur- 
pose of Socialism. It can therefore be truly- 
affirmed that organized city philanthropy, 
as put into practical operation through in- 
spectors, secretaries, and governing overseers, 
has changed from a basis purely Christian 
to one almost fully scientific and Socialistic. 
Many of our modern thinkers, brave enough 
to voice their thought, point out this blend- 
ing of methods. Lyman Abbot, in an article 
entitled "What is Christianity?" uses the 
following illustrations : — 

" The negro is deprived of suffrage by fraud or force 
in some sections of the South : the method of Social- 
ism is to send Federal troops to protect his right to 
the ballot-box; the method of Christianity is to send 
the school-teacher to develop in him a manhood strong 
enough to make him self-supporting. Drunkenness 
is a disease in America with the proportions of a 
pestilence : the method of Socialism is to send the 
constable to close the saloon; the method of Chris- 
tianity is to send the teacher and the preacher to make 
the man strong enough to control his own appetite." 



CONCLUSION. 225 



Here the difference of method is plainly- 
stated. Will any one say that always and in 
every case the Christian method is the best? 
General Booth, who for years has been 
the leader of the Salvation Army, an ultra- 
orthodox Christian, courageously says, — 

" I am quite satisfied that these multitudes [these 
starving, hungry crowds] will not be saved in their 
present circumstances. All the clergymen, home mis- 
sionaries, tract-distributors, sick visitors, and every 
one else who cares about the salvation of the poor 
must make up their minds to that. The poor must 
be helped out of their present social miseries." 

If Rev. Dr. Abbot's definition of the 
method of Christianity is right, then here is 
a repudiation of that method by one no less 
a Christian than himself. Professor Ely, 
another Christian, affirms that the method of 
Socialism must precede that suggested by 
Jesus : " Conditions must first be changed 
before we can work upon the individual by 
appeals to his moral nature. " When the 
text from the New Testament, " To him that 
asketh thee, give," is quoted to Professor Ely, 
15 



226 THE COMING RELIGION. 

he stoutly denies its practicability, affirming 
that " every time money is given on the street 
to a beggar without inquiry, harm is done." 
Over against the Christian method of preach- 
ing and tract-distributing he puts the need 
of changing external circumstances, saying 
that these methods are at last carrying con- 
viction to those actually at work among the 
poor. 

It is needless to enumerate further. The 
main thing to see is that however enthusias- 
tic we may be as believers in any one of 
these three great systems, that system sepa- 
rated and cut off from all else is partial, does 
not meet all the requirements of life, does 
not fully satisfy the highest desires of the 
mind, the deepest yearnings of the heart. 
Each religion, when it contributes its best, 
helps make the universal religion which is 
slowly struggling into form, and which is 
destined in the course of time to be the 
religion of the civilized world. 

This thought once ours, there will come 



CONCLUSION. 22/ 



with it much to cheer and make hopeful. 
We shall not feel that the drifting away from 
one religion, or the methods of that religion, 
is the drifting away into irreligion, — into a 
nameless something to be greatly feared. 
The failure of our system, it may be, is the 
signal for the rise of a better. The good that 
is in our own is not utterly lost, cannot be 
lost; it is simply absorbed, to reappear in the 
larger, more universally accepted religion. 
Why fear, then, the present rapid change in 
religious thought? Man's idea of God, duty, 
heaven, and hell change and have changed; 
for, in the words of the Gospel of Evolution, 
it is necessary, in order that a thing may have 
life, for it to adapt itself perpetually to vary- 
ing conditions. Religion, the thing itself, 
remains and shall forever abide, let it take on 
whatever form it may, for " God is our dwell- 
ing place in all generations. " 

" Our little systems have their day, 

They have their day, and cease to be ; 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." 



228 THE COMING RELIGION. 

I look above at the stars. I cannot now 
see the celestial figures that the Greeks saw, — 
Castor and Pollux, Cassiopeia, the Great Bear, 
and Aquila : these are all fanciful. My tele- 
scope, piercing far beyond the ken of the 
naked eye, reveals other combinations, mil- 
lions of stars our pagan forefathers never 
saw, a vaster heaven. Will any one say 
that because the fantastic forms of the an- 
cients have been blotted out, therefore the 
stars themselves are not there? Who would 
be so mad? So, to-day, the disproportioned, 
fantastic conceptions which the human mind 
has pictured about the abiding realities are 
being swept away ; but the stars — the eter- 
nal things of the universe — shall shine down 
upon us all the more resplendent in that the 
crude time-veil has been taken away. As the 
vision splendid bursts upon our eyes, let 
heart and soul break forth in rapturous strain 
of holy song; and once more religion shall 
be to us " a lamp unto our feet, and a light 
unto our path/' 



Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications. 

WEST ROXBURY SERMONS. 
1837-1845. 

By Theodore Parker. Printed from unpublished manuscripts. 
With introduction and Biographical Sketch. 

l6mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. 



This volume will indicate how early and by what rich eloquence, yet 
simple, searching, and full of high aspiration, Parker won the title of " The 
Great American Preacher." 

The Sermons cover the period from the beginning of his ministry at 
West Roxbury to the year following his settlement over the Music Hall 
congregation in Boston. 

The fifteen sermons in the volume reveal Parker, not as the religious 
iconoclast, but as the country pastor, intent on leading his flock in the ways of 
goodness and holiness. This is a little-known side of the great preacher's char- 
acter; and the editor, Dr. Samuel J. Barrows, deserves the thanks of the public 
for so effectually presenting it. It is an interesting fact that in one of the ser- 
mons included in this volume, "Christian Advancement," Parker partially 
anticipated the theory of development which Darwin so fully elaborated in the 
"Origin of Species." — New York Tribune. 

This ought to be a book for tired hearts, for perplexed consciences ; and 
next, it ought to be a book of sermons for sermonizers. Preachers may well 
study these models of sermons, of which it may be surely said, that they are good 
if not great, helpful if not startling, comforting with an inspiration that makes 
for nobleness. 

We are glad Mr. Barrows has done this work, and that we have this oppor- 
tunity of testing the preaching power of Theodore Parker thirty years after he is 
dead and gone. This is a severe test to put a man to. How few are the preach- 
ers who could stand this test as well as this man, whom Lowell described as 
having 

" Almost Taylor's profusion, quite Latimer's sense." 

We are among those who still believe in the vitality of Theodore Parker's words. 
We know of no writings more helpful to those who are on the borderland of 
Orthodoxy to-day than the words of Theodore Parker. Let those who are dis- 
turbed by the words of Dr. Briggs, Bishop Brooks, and the Andover men, take 
a course of reading in Theodore Parker and see how the light will shine; and it 
will be sunlight, too, warming and vivifying as well as illuminating. — Unity. 



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THE SOURCES OF CONSOLATION 
IN HUMAN LIFE. 

By Rev. WILLIAM R. ALGER, 
Author of " The Genius of Solitude," " Friendships of Women," etc, 

l6mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50. 



The writer of this volume, a well-known minister among the Unitarians of 
New England, having reached nearly threescore years and ten, fittingly takes in 
hand a topic of special interest to older people and not without attraction even to 
the young. He is able to speak from experience as well as observation, and to 
give additional force to what he has to say by having himself seen and known how 
continually human beings need consolation amid the troubles of life. His purpose 
here is to furnish a full discussion of the subject and a setting forth of the neces- 
sity, the ground, and the essential method of consolation. Nothing doubting that 
he has something to say which is worth saying, "he hopes to communicate his 
message in a winsome and effective way, free from the perfunctory quality and 
mawkish traits so prominent in most books dedicated to this subject." 

Mr. Alger arranges the matter of his volume in ten chapters. First, the 
consolations in human life are classified and illustrated ; next, the weeping of 
humanity in all ages, or " the history of tears," is given. Following this touching 
chapter comes appropriate and tolerably full considerations of the relation be- 
tween the calamities of men and the providence of God : the mystery of early 
deaths, or the mission of the little child ; "partings in human life, or the farewells 
of the world ; " " uur human need of faith in an all-pervasive and overruling 
God; " the " true lessons of grief; " the "tragedy of the sea, and its removal ; " 
the "grounds for a cheerful trust in the perfection of divine providence; " "the 
consolation and true interpretation of the origin, office, and meaning of death ; " 
and in a concluding essay his view of the " latest form of theology, the divine 
purpose in the universe a perfect consolation for every ill." 

These are interesting passages, and they show with what thought and vigor 
the whole Volume is written. The very title of the book will attract attention ; 
and the reader who once opens it will read far into it and, finally, through it. 
Mr. Alger's style has a pervading charm, and his wide survey of a theme that 
appeals to the whole human race is made with freshness, force, and originality. — 
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Messrs. Roberts BrotJiers' Publications, 

THY KINGDOM COME. 

Ten Sermons on the Lord's Prayer, preached at King's 
Chapel. By Rev. Henry Wilder Foote. 

i6mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. 



A memorial of a beautiful character and a true Christian reaches us in the 
form of ten of his sermons printed in a neat and handy volume. The late Rev. 
Henry Wilder Foote was pastor of King's Chapel, Boston. This quaint old stone 
church — "a rock amid the waves of time" — still stands on Tremont Street. 
The half-score of discourses are expository of the Lord's Prayer, and have thus 
a marked unity of thought and style. The volume is entitled "Thy Kingdom 
Come." Thoughtfulness, deep experience of life, acquaintanceship and com- 
munion with spiritual realities, and a fine command of clear and simple language 
are the characteristics most manifest in these sermons. Mr. Foote had a hatred 
of mere formalism in words or acts ; and loving to tear away the wrapper from 
the contents of truth, he pressed ever on to the reality within. The sermon on the 
petition, " Hallowed be Thy name " is a strong example in point, and recalls 
the power and vividness of Robertson of Brighton. This memorial of a scholar 
and Christian teacher — one of the brightest ornaments of the Unitarian pulpit — 
will be welcome to many. — The Critic. 

This little volume is one of delightful spiritual reading. It is a book of 
meditations without a trace of scholastic or polemical theology in it. Its spirit 
is indicated by such phrases as these, which we gather almost at hazard from its 
pages : " The first words of this mighty prayer lift us at once to the highest 
level;" "Names have a deeper connection with things than we sometimes 
think ; " " Christianity has well been called a dispensation of encouragement." 
These are the meditations of a soul accustomed to live in the higher atmosphere, 
to think upon the deeper things, and to walk in the sunlight of a great hope and 
courage. — Christian Union. 

The book will not only be treasured highly as a memorial of its author, but 
the sermons in themselves will be found to be of unusual spiritual power. One 
hardly needs to be told, as in the few lines of the preface, that these sermons were 
preached after a time of deep experience. The reader who had not had the 
privilege of hearing the eminent preacher of King's Chapel will feel, as he reads 
these living discourses, that it is a rare soul, and one truly enlightened, who 
speaks to him. The literary character of these sermons is high and chaste, but 
the helpfulness of the discourses, to souls perplexed about the nature and value 
of prayer, is their notable characteristic. — Boston Advertiser. 



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Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications, 

THE CRISIS IN MORALS. 

An Examination of Rational Ethics in the 
Light of Modern Science. 

By Rev. JAMES THOMPSON BIXBY. 

l6mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. 



The increasing interest in ethical subjects will be augmented by the appear- 
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theory of morals as the product simply of evolution; and while it does justice to 
evolution and relegates it to its proper work in the progress of morality, it also 
does justice to intuition as the ground and principle of all moral insignt. 

In his hands the scientific theory of evolution becomes a veritable boomerang 
to plague and confuse its inventors. Dr. Bixby takes a position similar to Mr. 
Hutton's, and subjects Mr. Spencer's "Data of Ethics" to an inductive and 
analytic examination, with the result of showing the insufficient grounds on which 
it rests and the inadequate exposition it makes of the theory of morals. Dr. 
Bixby's style is lucid and interesting. 8 He does not strain his points nor indulge 
in refinements of reasoning; nor is he unable to appreciate the good points of 
evolution, which, as a general doctrine, he is disposed to accept. Nor does he 
pursue Mr. Spencer with a partisan pen. Incidentally his book is an effective 
vindication of the Kantian theory of conscience, and places the discussion on the 
solid ground of a spiritual philosophy. It is one of the multiplying indications 
that the mind of the world is not going to settle down content with the Spencerian 
theory of ethics. It shows that evolution — which, as Mr. John Fiske remarked 
several years ago, furnished the strongest possible ground on which to press the 
teleological argument for the existence of God — is going to prove an illusive 
theory for the support of an evolutionary as against an instinctive theory of the 
development of the foundation of morality. — The Independent. 

The fourteen chapters are devoted to a thorough criticism of Herbert Spencer's 
utilitarian ethics and a development of the authors profound view of ethics as 
evolved from the conscience and the inner motive of moral choice and action. 
This is a timely and much needed discussion of a vital subject. — Chicago Tribune. 

There is probably no more searching and satisfactory criticism of Mr. Spencer's 
work than this, which unites the scientific and the religious views in a most 
rational manner. — Literary World. 



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Roberts Brothers Publications. 



ETHICAL RELIGION. 

By William Mackintire Salter. 
12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50. 



A FEW CRITICAL OPINIONS. 

One of the best and most useful books lately given to the public is " Ethical 
Religion," by William Mackintire Salter, well known to all the leading 
thinkers in this country. The book, as stated in the preface, is made up of lec- 
tures given, for the most part, before the Society for Ethical Culture, of Chicago, 
and nowise claims to represent the movement, but simply reflects the author's 
own attitude of mind upon the various topics treated, namely : Ethical Religion, 
The Ideal Element in Morality, What is a Moral Action ? Is there a higher Law? 
Is there anything Absolute about Morality? Darwinism in Ethics, The Social 
Ideal, The Rights of Labor, Personal Morality, On Some Features of the Ethics 
of Jesus, Do the Ethics of Jesus satisfy the Needs of our Time ? Good Friday 
from a Modern Standpoint, The Success and the Failure of Protestantism, Why 
Unitariani^m fails to satisfy, The Basis of the Ethical Movement, The Suprem- 
acy of Ethics, The True Basis of Religious Union. The author's style of writing 
is very charming, and what he says upon the various topics is said in a thoughtful 
and earnest way. It contains three hundred and thirty-two pages, printed on 
fine paper, and beautifully bound in cloth. The book deserves, and no doubt will 
have, a large sale. — Trzcth. 

Here is the soul of religion. Here is the living worship. There are no 
husks here, true; but there are buds and blossoms in abundance and fragrance. 
There is_ here no " washing of cups and platters," granted ; but there are here 
" the weightier matters of the law," — the eternal law of right. In a word, there 
is here, in glowing, suggestive epitome, the essence of true human being and 
doing. The world will not soon accept it all, especially as religion. It is not the 
sensuous, luxurious thing, the meretriciously upholstered and gaudily elaborate 
thing, the obstreperous, shouting, sense-satisfying thing that most people know 
as religion. But it is the religion of the heights and depths and innermost 
recesses ; and if we read it well, we rise from it to stand erect and free as never 
before, — unless, indeed, we rise from it to fall upon our faces to hide ourselves 
from ourselves. — The Neiv Ideal. 

I especially thank you for Salter's book. I have read it with great profit, 
both as a philosopher and a man. Say to the author, if you think it will interest 
him, that I feel theoretically, as well as practically, benefited by his book. He 
lays down with great clearness, as well as exactness, the leading principles of 
philosophic ethics to his hearers and readers, and illustrates them by excellent 
and fitting examples from life, — the little everv-day life, as well as the great 
historical life. And then the noble and pure spirit that pervades the entire book ! 
It is in the true sense a book of edification. — Letter from Prof. Harold 
H off ding, of Cope?ihagen. 

And the foundation of the new religion ? Morality ! — of course, not that old 
morality which the Christian churches teach, but the real morality which, as 
Salter describes it, is something infinitely higher, is an independent idea,_ an inde- 
pendent law of the human spirit, is older than all convention and tradition and 
books and persons, and therefore able to overset and supplant them all. — 
Evangelical Chtirch Advertiser, Berlin, 



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Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications. 



CHRISTIAN HISTORY 

IxN ITS THREE GREAT PERIODS. First Period: 
Early Christianity. By Joseph Henry Allen, 
Lecturer on Ecclesiastical History in Harvard Univer- 
sity. With Chronological Outline and Index, and an 
Introduction on the Study of Christian History. i6mo. 
Cloth. Price, $1.25. 

Topics: i. The Messiah and the Christ; 2. Saint Paul; 
3. Christian Thought of the Second Century ; 4. The Mind of 
Paganism ; 5. The Arian Controversy ; 6. Saint Augustine ; 7. Leo 
the Great ; 8. Monasticism as a Moral Force ; 9. Christianity in 
the East; 10. Conversion of the Barbarians; 11. The Holy Ro- 
man Empire ; 12. The Christian Schools. 

" In whatever way we regard the origin and early growth of Christianity, 
whether as special revelation or as historic evolution, the key to it is to be 
found not in its speculative dogma, not in its ecclesiastical organization, not 
even in what strictly constitutes its religious life, but in its fundamentally 
ethical character. In either way of understanding it, it is first of all a gos- 
pel for the salvation of human life." — Preface. 

" I have read your Fragments of Christian History with instruction and delight. 
You are a miracle of candor and comprehensiveness. . . . You and Dr. Hedge are 
almost the only men who know thoroughly the whole grand field of Ecclesiastical 
History. ... I most cordially send you my thanks for such an illumination as you 
have given me, on many obscure points of Christian History." — E. P. Whipple 
to the Author. 

" We do not desire to state an unqualified agreement with all the conclusions 
of Professor Allen, and yet we are free to confess that we know of no work of the 
same scope which could be put into the hands of a thoughtful young man, in 
which he could find so much sound philosophy, valuable historical review, and 
devout apprehension of essential Christianity as he will find in ' Fragments of 
Christian History.'" — Chicago Alliance. 

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Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Pitblications. 

POSITIVE RELIGION. 

ESSAYS, FRAGMENTS, AND HINTS. 

By JOSEPH HENRY ALLEN, 

Author of " Christian History in its Three Great Periods," 
" Hebrew Men and Times," etc. 

I6MO. CLOTH. PRICE, $1.25. 

Among the subjects treated may be noted the following, viz. : 
"How Religions Grow/' " A Religion of Trust/' " The World-Re- 
ligions/' "The Death of Jesus," "The Question of a Future Life," 
" The Bright Side/' " Religion and Modern Life," etc. 

The subjects are discussed, as one will indeed plainly see, by a learned 
Christian scholar, and from that height in life's experience which one reaches 
at three score and ten years. They treat of the growth of religion ; of relig- 
ion as an experience; of the terms "Agnostic" and "God" ; of the mystery 
of pain, of immortality and kindred topics. The author is among the best 
known of the older Unitarians, and the breadth of his views, together with his 
modesty of statement and ripeness of judgment, give the book a charm not too 
common in religious works. The literary style is also pleasing. — Advertiser. 

This little volume of 260 pages contains much that is fresh and interesting 
and some things which are true only from a Unitarian standpoint. It is 
always delightful to read an author who knows what he is writing about, 
and can present his thoughts in a clear and forcible manner. His intention 
is to exhibit religion not so much (1 as a thing of opinion, of emotion, or of 
ceremony, as an element in men's own experience, or a force, mighty and 
even passionate, in the world's affairs." Such an endeavor is highly lauda- 
ble, and the work has been well done. — Christian Mirror. 

A collection of a acute, reverent, and suggestive talks on some of the great 
themes of religion. Many Christians will dissent from his free handling of 
certain traditional views, dogmas of Christianity, but they will be at once with 
him in his love of goodness and truth, and in his contention that religion finds 
its complete fruition in the lives rather than the speculative opinions of men. — 
N. Y. Tribtme. 

Mr. Allen strikes straight out from the shoulder, with energy that shows 
his natural force not only unabated, but increased with added years. " At 
Sixty: A New Year Letter" is sweet and mellow with the sunshine of the 
years that bring the philosophic mind. But we are doing what we said that 
we must not, and must make an arbitrary end. Yet not without a word of 
admiration for the splendid force and beauty of many passages. These are 
the product of no artifice, but are uniformly an expression of that humanity 
which is the writer's constant end and inspiration. In proportion as this finds 
free and full expression, the style assumes a warmth and color that not only 
give an intellectual pleasure, but make the heart leap up with sympathetic 
courage and resolve. — J. W. C. 

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The Bible for Learners. 



By Dr. H. Oort, of Ley den, and Dr. I. Hooykaas, 
Pastor at Rotterdam. 

Translated from the Dutch by Rev. P. H. Wicksteed, „/ London 

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•• This work emanates from the Dutch school of theologians 
Nowhere in Europe," said the lamented J. J. Tayler, " has theo- 
logical science assumed a bolder or more decisive tone [than in 
Holland] ; though always within the limits of profound reverence, 
and an unenfeebled attachment to the divine essence of the gos- 
pel. . . . We know of no work done here which gives such evi- 

< 
dence of solid scholarship joined to a deep and strong religious 

spirit. The ' Bible for Young People ' should be the means to 
very many, both old and young, of a more satisfying idea of what 
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Messrs. Roberts Brothers Publications. 

A CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE 
OF A FUTURE LIFE. 

BY WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER, 

Author of " The Friendships of Women" " The Poetry of the 
Orient,' 1 " The School of Life" etc. 

A new edition (the 14th revised) , with supplementary 
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The volume was written twenty years ago. A year or more since it was out 
of print ; and in consequence of the demand, and in view of the new light and 
the changes brought about by so long a period, the author has prepared a new 
and enlarged edition, making a volume of over a thousand pages. 

The many personal friends of the author, and the large number who have 
read his works and listened to his pulpit utterances, will not need to be assured of 
the elegance and finish of the chapters. Beautiful, rounded periods and elegant 
word-painting are the rule, and not the exception. 

The facts of history and the traditions, the arguments of the past and the 
present, are admirably interwoven by the charming poetic methods of the reverend 
author. They never seem forced ; and if there is redundancy of embellishment, 
it seems to be a necessity of the author. — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

The present work is, in a sense, an epitome of the thought of mankind on 
the destiny of man. I have striven to add value to it by comprehensiveness of 
plan, — not confining myself, as most of my predecessors have confined them- 
selves, to one province or a few narrow provinces of the subject, but including the 
entire subject in one volume ; by carefzdness of arrangement, — not piling the 
material together, or presenting it in a chaos of facts and dreams, but grouping it 
all in its proper relations ; by clearness of 'explanation , — not leaving the curious 
problems presented wholly in the dark with a mere statement of them, but as far 
as possible tracing the phenomena to their origin, and unveiling their purport ; by 
poetic life of treatment,— not handling the different topics dryly and coldly, but 
infusing warmth and color into them ; by copiousness of information,— not leav- 
ing the reader to hunt up everything for himself, but referring him to the best 
sources for the facts, reasonings, and hints which he may wish ; and by persevering 
patience of toil, — not hastily skimming here and there, and hurrying the task off, 
but searching and researching in every available direction, examining and re- 
examining each mooted point, by the devotion of twelve years of anxious labor. 
How far my efforts in these particulars have been successful is submitted to the 
public. — A utkor's Preface. 

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DAILY STRENGTH FOR 
DAILY NEEDS. 

Selected by the Editor of "Quiet Hours," 

i6mo. Cloth, Price $1.00 ; white cloth, gilt, $1.25. 
♦ 

"This little bcok is made up of selections from Scripture, and verses 
of poetry, and prose selections for each day of the year. We turn with 
confidence to any selections of this kind which Mrs. Tileston may make. 
In her ' Quiet Hours,' * Sunshine for the Soul,' ' The Blessed Life,' and 
other works, she has brought together a large amount of rich devotional 
material in a poetic form. Her present book does not disappoint us. 
We hail with satisfaction every contribution to devotional literature 
which shall be acceptable to liberal Christians. This selection is made 
up from a wide range of authors, and there is an equally wide range of 
topics. It is an excellent book for private devotion or for use at the 
family altar." — Christian Register. 

" It is made up of brief selections in prose and verse, with accompa- 
nying texts of Scripture, for every day in the year, arranged by the editor 
of ' Quiet Hours,' and for the purpose of ' bringing the reader to perform 
the duties and to bear the burdens of each day with cheerfulness and 
courage.' It is hardly necessary to say that the selection is admirably 
made, and that the names one finds scattered through the volume suggest 
the truest spiritual insight and aspiration. It is a book to have always 
on one's table, and to make one's daily companion." — Christian Union. 

"They are the words of those wise and holy men, who, in all ages, 
have realized the full beauty of spiritual experience. They are words to 
comfort, to encourage, to strengthen, and to uplift into faith and aspira- 
tion. It is pleasant to think of the high and extended moral development 
that were possible, if such a book were generally the daily companion and 
counsellor of thinking men and women Every day of the year has its 
appropriate text and appropriate thoughts, all helping towards the best 
life of the reader. Such a volume needs /10 appeal to gain attention to 
it." — Sunday Globe, Boston. 



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&W(i 



